Flame in the dark
by KH2083
Summary: Rei Hino pays a visit in a town which she remembers from her childhood. It turnes out that she finds there not only her old friends, but also the secret which connects her past with something dangerous and demonic. Other stories in this Elseworld: "A Game for you"
1. Chapter 1

**Flame in the dark**

World: Sailor Moon

Time of action: after the series' finale

Main characters: Rei Hino

**Chapter 1**

Big tourist bus was slowly moving along the road between two hills covered by a vast forests. There was a moonless night and clouds from which heavy rain was falling down painted the black sky entirely. Crashes of thunderclaps had been shouting over a monotonous sound of water drops rushing to meet with the ground every couple of minutes. Black haired girl named Rei Hino was travelling inside the bus. Hidden in the bus' chair, she was holding a book lying on her knees. She was touching the window's pane all the time looking at the rain water flowing down its glass surface. She had been travelling for over 5 hours, she was tired out and achy from the uncomfortable seat. She was listening intently to all sounds surrounding her: rustle of the water knocking on the metal sheet of the car's body, monotonous sound of the engine and the music from the walkman of a person sitting somewhere in the vicinity. Lightning had been lightening the semi-darkness of the vehicle's inside up every couple of minutes and somewhere deeper inside the bus a child being afraid of a storm was crying. Rei corrected her black hair, looked out of the window musing about her travel. She didn't know exactly why she had left her home and why so far to the North. One night, when she had meditated at the fire in her temple she had seen visions - she could see a small town located in the North Hokkaido and had the feeling that visit of the girl was absolutely needed there. She knew that she would understand what the vision had been about only when she visit the place. She also understood that she had to come off there alone, telling nobody where she was going, neither what caused her to travel there. Rei came to the conclusion that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep, so she came back to reading the book. She peeked through the window. She noticed that some buildings appeared which meant, that she had approached the target of her expedition. After a moment a noise sounded and the bus shook. People started talking loudly, somebody swore, the child being afraid of a storm was crying even louder. Black-haired girl put the book back. She started to look around. The rain outside was already so strong that it wasn't possible to see anything in the radius of a few meters. The driver ran out from his vehicle. After a moment he came back, he was enraged and drenched entirely.

"We got a flat tire. We'll have to wait for the end of the greatest downpour. I'll try to repair the breakdown as soon as possible. I apologize for all impediments". The man announced with irritated voice. Somebody swore loudly. Two young men offered the driver the help in the tire change.

"How long is it from here to a hotel?" Rei asked the fat person sitting closest to her.

"I think it's about a half kilometer". The woman replied with a deep voice.

"In that case..." The girl took her knapsack. She rose from the chair.

"I don't intend to wait hours here". She announced and squeezing past the fat lady she went to the exit door. As soon as she left the vehicle, cold air enfolded her and her legs got stuck in a wet mud. Streams of rain wetted her hair and clothes, but in spite of it she didn't come back to the bus. She knew that the breakdown of the bus exactly in this place had to have some meaning for her. She was walking along the road toward the small town fighting with the rain and cold wind. Men repairing the car and watching her depart whispered something to each other and laughed quietly, but their voices were deafened by the howling of the wind and streams of water falling down from the sky. Rei slowly pursued to the first constructions. Lights from windows of nearby buildings were her only signposts in the surroundings filled by the wave of rain which seemed to be endless. The girl was drenched, freezing cold and angry at herself, that she had made up her mind to leave much warmer and what was more important dry inside of the bus for no reasons to at all. The road turned into a river of dirty water and mud. Rei was moving along it with an effort. She stopped in order to sweep wet hair aside from her face. In the same moment a wooden house hidden in the clump of trees appeared in a front of her eyes. Light was shinning in its windows and somebody was standing on the porch. Surprised girl went up closer and it turned out that it was some older woman. Something suggested the black-haired girl to come closer to the stranger. Seeing approaching Rei, the old lady ran out ahead of the porch spreading her hands.

"Mei, Mei! Is it you? Did you come back?" She asked delighted. Rei came to the old woman with fast steps and led her back to the porch.

"You shouldn't go outside in such a downpour". The girl tried to lead her back into the dry place. The woman looked at the eyes of black-haired girl, her face quickly turned sad.

"You aren't Mei, you aren't..." The old woman said almost crying.

"I'm sorry that I'm not a person which you waited for ". Rei announced being pleased in her heart of hearts that she found at least a momentary shelter from the rain.

"Are you expecting guest?" She asked.

"Yes... my granddaughter Mei! She's supposed to come back! She'll certainly come back to me this night, I prepared her favorite dishes..." The woman said almost crying from longing and joy at the same time. Rei opened her knapsack and took the map of surroundings out of it. She really wanted to go inside the stranger's home to warm herself up. She tried to establish a closer contact with her.

"Aren't you cold in such a night? You'd better go inside your house..."

"No, no! I cannot move from here! I cannot! Because I'll miss my granddaughter's arrival then!" The girl was surprised by the behavior of the old lady. She became nervous.

"But she knows the way home. It doesn't matter whether you're waiting for her here or inside!"

"That's not true! I cannot miss her arrival! I cannot!" The old person insisted.

"If you say so..." Rei sighed and looked at the map. She realized that it stopped raining and the air became warmer and more pleasant. The girl picked her backpack up and decided to move into the way forward.

"Goodbye, lady."

"Goodbye, safe journey". The old woman screamed looking at the walking away girl.

"What a strange person..." Rei said to herself. She started sneezing. She felt water from the rain wouldn't do her much good. She thought that it was her own fault, because she had left the bus and gone into the greatest downpour. After a few minutes of the walk she stopped on the crossroads and looked at the sky. Clouds yielded and the large silver moon appeared over the dark horizon. The girl looking at its oval shape felt strange calm and serenity. She noticed the building with a lot of lights in the distance. According to the map which she had it was the hotel in which she was supposed to stay. It meant that she had finally reached the small town. She smiled and went faster in the direction of the construction. Rei entered inside the hotel. Its reception was little, decorated only with a few pot flowers. At this late hour of the night the place was completely vacated not counting the receptionist performing her duty. The girl came up to the woman standing by the wall.

"I'm Rei Hino, I have the room booked here". The woman looked at the drenched figure with a backpack standing before her. She laughed up her sleeve.

"How did you got here in such a scolding rain?" She asked.

"I'm unlucky". Rei answered.

"Can you just give me the key to my room? I must change". Impatient girl added.

"Of course. Come with me. I'll lead you to your room". After these words two woman went toward stairs leading to the upper floor of the building. In the reception, some completely bald man in the sunglasses dressed in a bright short-sleeved shirt and a white trousers was reading a newspaper behind a big tree in the flowerpot. Seeing raven haired girl walking away deep into the building, he put the newspaper back and looked at her carefully. Meanwhile the girl entered the room allotted to her, quickly closed the front door and not even putting the light on, she entered the bathroom. She took wet clothes off and immediately stepped under the shower. After a few minutes she came back to the room in a purple, summer pajamas. She was worn out after the journey, she didn't have will even to dry off her hair. She lay down in the bed, trying to fall asleep as soon as possible.

Rei was dreaming unusual dreams. She was on the huge market place enclosed from the rest of the city with a high fence. She was a little girl and everything around her seemed very tall. She looked all around trying to found somebody. She got lost, she was walking from the building to the building searching for a familiar view, or a person who would help her to find the road. Houses which she passed were grey and dirty and the street was full of dust and sand. Somebody called her by the name from a distance - voice of other child, trembling, desperate, begging for a help. Rei went in its direction, faster and faster. She was running near passers-by looking down on her, spectral figures with a horrifying, grotesque smile. She ran up to the little gate by which the fair-haired girl was standing. Small girl smiled at the sight of Rei and she extended a hand to her. At that very moment the body of the child caught fire. The huge flame consumed stranger and spread to the gate and closest buildings. Rei could not move. She started crying seeing the tragic death of the girl. The fire was closer and closer, therefore black-haired girl started escaping. Flames burnt everything on their road, huge grey buildings and motionless specters, which dying in tongues of the fire didn't lose the horrifying smile stuck to their palefaces. Rei stumbled and flames touched her body.

The girl woke up from the nightmare. It was already bright in the room, the Sun was slowly moving above the horizon. Rei turned to the other side of the bed. She felt ill, her head and throat were aching. She sat down on the bed and corrected hair falling on her forehead. She was sweaty and her fast heartbeat was slowly calming down.

"What this dream was supposed to mean?" She thought. She got up and looked at a wristwatch which was lying on the night table. It indicated 5: 45 hours.

"Nice... I slept probably around three hours."

She decided to find some medicine in the backpack and take them as soon as possible. She felt the cold taking over her slowly, she knew that she could not let herself to fall ill. She put the knapsack on the bed and started digging around in it. She unfortunately could not find neither bags with pills neither a box in which she held her ofuda which she used to the fight against supernatural powers. She became nervous and then ardent wave flooded her, she felt much worse. She remembered the night-time meeting with the older woman.

"It had to fall out from my hands, when I took the backpack." She thought and calmed down. She was safe, because such an old woman certainly wouldn't find an application for her magic accessories. She was feeling ill and weakened, therefore she decided to lie down and sleep a few next hours. The rest of the morning she spent in a calm sleep. She woke up after nine o'clock. She was feeling a little better, therefore she decided to get dressed and come back to the house of the old lady for her things. She put new jeans and a blue shirt on. Leaving the hotel, she noticed that in front of the building an entirely bald man reading the newspaper was sitting on the bench. He had white trousers and the T-shirt with the inscription "Fuck Communism" on it. Exactly like the night before, he looked at the girl walking away avidly. Rei quickly found herself by the old house. Before she decided to knock, she stopped for a few minutes and chose to watch the homestead very well visible in the sunlight of the morning. The building was in a very bad state, its walls were cracked and windows were covered by planks. The road leading to the door was overgrown with grass and weeds. Rei noticed her things lying in thickets. She took them and decided to talk with the woman. She knocked at the door. Nobody opened. She tried once again, with no effect. She wanted to look into the window, but she saw nothing through little slits in boards. She leaned against the wall and felt the cold again.

"It's a ruin! Nobody has been living here for a dozen years!" She heard someone's voice. She turned around and saw a young boy standing close by. He had brown hair and was wearing jeans and a black shirt.

"Nobody? Bu yesterday I..."

"Rei! Rei-chan?" The boy cut her off in mid-sentence.

"Do we know each other?" The surprised girl asked.

"Rei, I remember your face! Don't you remember me? I'm Masanori".

"Nobody with such a name is coming to my mind..."

"You forgot... I shouldn't be surprised. So much years has passed since we've last seen each other. You were a little girl then, we both were children".

"I had to be very small, since I remember nothing. And apart from that I think that I've been in these area for the first time in the life". Rei continued the conversation not very satisfied with the new company ..."

Listen, perhaps we'll go somewhere to talk? I'm sure that if I tell you how we played here you'll recall everything". The stranger suggested.

"Maybe not today... I caught a cold and I'm not feeling well".

"I know a good café. The hot chocolate they're serving there, will help you for sure". Rei put box with ofuda into her backpack. Recent events seemed strange to her: the meeting with a mysterious woman, the strange nightmare, disappearing of the old lady and the appearance of the boy who claimed that they were good friends in the past. She knew, that all of this could correlate with the premonition and the vision which caused her to go to this neighborhood.

"Ok, I'll go with you to a café... but first tell me one thing... why did you say the house by which we're talking now was an abandoned ruin?"

"Because that's true! An old woman used to live here in the past, but she died many years ago... I don't remember her too well, but people are saying that her granddaughter died in the mountains. The woman waited for her a long time, until she died of the worries". Rei's face paled. She swallowed hard.

"It's becoming stranger and stranger..." She thought.

"Rei... Did something happen?" The boy asked.

"No, nothing... I just felt a bit dizzy. Fever is probably starting to overwhelm me. Perhaps we'll go to a café?"

"Ok." the boy agreed willingly.

"I cannot tell him I yesterday talked to the apparition of this woman. He'll think that I'm nuts". Rei was thinking. She decided that she would visit the house of the elderly lady later, armed in accessories to the fight against preternatural powers.

Masanori and Rei reached the small café with a garden. Because of an early time the restaurant wasn't crowded, only a few guests were tranquilly drinking the coffee. The bald man who earlier had observed Rei was sitting in the corner of the small garden in front of the building. He was reading a newspaper, probably the same one as the day before. The girl stopped nearby the entry to the local and looked around. As it turned out the café was surrounded with a little coniferous forest which cast the pleasant and cool shadow to the route.

"It's nice here". The girl announced.

"I'm pleased that you like it. Let us come in". Rei and her friend took the place at one of tables far from the road in the small garden. A calm, quiet music was coming from loudspeakers somewhere in the vicinity. The bald man finished reading the newspaper and geared himself up to leave the café. Passing by Rei he cast a brief glance at her. Girl noticed it and she was a little surprised that she had met the same man once again.

"Rei-chan? Did something happen?" Masanori asked.

"No... I simply fell into a pensive mood". Black-haired girl announced.

"And don't call me 'chan', ok? I don't know you or I don't remember it!"

"Ah... I thought that something had already started to appear in your memories..." The boy replied. "Nothing at all... I've been in these surroundings for the first time, I cannot remember you, when did you finally understand it? I don't know why I agreed to meet with you in this place!" Rei told with raised voice and tried to rise from the table. Masanori stopped her.

"Why did you arrive here?" He asked.

"I don't know... I mean I know, but I don't think that you would be able to understand it". The girl sat down on the chair because she decided to stay.

"I think, that somewhere in your heart of hearts you remember this place and me".

"Tell me. Tell me how you got to know me and when it was." The girl suggested.

"It was years ago, when we both were children. You come to us with your grandfather for holidays. I remember that I met you first time in the nearby park when you were bored, because your grandfather meditated somewhere in the mountains and you didn't know what to do with yourself. I showed you nearby forests, mysterious tracks and other places which fascinated you then. Next day you turned up in the park again, and we had been meeting every day through your time in our city. Three of us were playing every day: I, you and Mei-chan. Did you recall something?"

Rei's emotions were mixed up very much, on the one hand she thought that the boy had found a very strange way to pick her up and invite her to a coffee, but on the other hand his story and recalled name Mei-chan caused that there was a slight possibility that the connection between his appearance and strange premonition which forced her to go to this small town existed. All events of the previous days seemed to be tied together: the old person awaiting the girl of name Mei-chan, the boy who claimed that the old person died a long time ago who also recalled Mei's name and the meeting with a strange bald man appearing everywhere. The girl thought that she would try to be close to the boy and believe in his story or discover what was actually hidden behind his behavior. She also knew, that if everything turned out to be his whim, she would know how to defend herself against him.

"Unfortunately, I don't remember anything, I'm sorry". She refuted after a moment of thought.

"Don't worry. If you stay here few days more you'll remember everything". Masanori said calmly. Rei changed her sitting positions. She felt that the cold was attacking her more and more.

"Maybe... I'll show you one place which we visited together during your stay here?"

"No... I don't think so, not today. I told you that I caught a cold and my throat still aches me".

"It'll take no more than a few minutes, no more... I promise. After this I'll buy you some drugs".

"Ok, if it'll be no more than a few minutes..."

Masanori and the girl left the café. Rei looked around in quest for the bald man. She realized with a relief that this time he hadn't tracked her. When black-haired girl and her companion entered the nearby park, the Sun went up high above the horizon and surroundings were filled with its warm rays. The girl didn't tolerate increasing heat because of her cold. She came up to the short stone wall along the road seeking the cool shadow. She stopped for a moment, passing fingers over the uneven surface of the structure. The boy came up to her alarmed with her behavior.

"Did something happen?" He asked.

"I told you that I was feeling bad. Probably it overwhelmed me for good..."

At the same time a vision appeared in her mind, memory of a past years from a long time ago. She could see herself as a little girl in the red dress standing by the same stone low wall. She could see the smile on her face and rays of sunshine falling on it. She could see two other persons keeping her company: the boy and other girl.

"Rei... Rei! What is happening now!" Masanori asked.

"I don't know... I remembered that I've been in this place before... it's so strange..."

"You see! I told you! You'll certainly recall it all! It's our wall from childhood."

"If you say so... Is this the place you wanted to show me? In that case let us return to my hotel. I'll lie down for the rest of the day..." Black-haired girl announced. She was too weak to investigate case of the boy further.

"Ok, but we'll take a shortcut. Ok?"

"Ok, it's your city, take a lead". The girl agreed. The boy led Rei into the side lane which very quickly transformed into the trampled down ground route in the hills covered with trees. There was green and pleasantly there and the shadows cast by trees gave the effective protection from the heat of the summer's Sun. The girl was satisfied with this shortcut, because coolness caused that she felt a bit better. After a few minutes Masanori stopped and asked Rei to do the same. He showed her the small footpath disappearing into the forest thicket.

"Let us walk there, I must show you something." He said. Black-haired unwillingly agreed and they both were on a forest path covered from both sides by a high grass. The path was steep and a mud from yesterday's rain was lying everywhere. The girl had to go down very slowly in order not to slip.

"I like it less and less!" She announced. Masanori showed her with a gesture of a hand to be quiet. After a moment they both found themselves on some enclosure overgrown with bushes. Instinctively Rei clutched fence so she could walk on a wet mud lying all around. The boy stopped and he swept thickets growing before him aside.

"Look Rei, do you remember?" He asked. An abandoned funfair appeared before the eyes of the girl. Wooden buildings with faded paint, wiped out by the time and the nature were standing on both sides of the road overgrown by diverse weeds. Colorful, plastic objects which were their part were lying here and there and a poster showing very fat woman in a pink dress was fluttering on the nearby pole. In the distance one could see the rusting devil's wheel and the roller coaster structure covered by ivy. Rei felt that this place was familiar for her and she has been there before. She couldn't however remember details associated with it.

"Do you remember?" Masanori asked her again.

"No, but I like this place. When I feel better, I'll come here" The girl announced. Her friend admitted that she was right and he led her to a main road going to a the small town and the hotel. In the meantime the boy stopped by the nearby drug store by in order to buy medicines he promised the girl. After a dozen minutes of a walk they reached their destination.

"Thanks for the coffee and the brief trip." Rei announced gearing up for the return to her room.

"It was nice to meet the friend from the childhood." Masanori said.

"I'd better go now... the throat is aching me, as if something is burning inside it , I must take some pills".

"See you later, Rei".

Black-haired girl crossed the gate of the hotel. The boy stopped her.

"Listen... don't open a window at the night, it can be very cold here... better not to catch another cold... and one more thing... if you cannot fall asleep, I bought a sleeping pill for you, take it... ok?" The boy seemed confused and very serious.

"Ok..." The girl replied being surprised with the last statement of her colleague.

Walking up the stairs, the black-haired girl met the bald man who also came back from a walk all over the city again. This time she didn't pay any attention to him perhaps because she heard noise in her head and a next symptom of a cold appeared - very unpleasant runny nose. Rei entered her room quickly and took her shoes off, swallowed pills which she got from new acquaintance and lay down on the bed. She felt dizzy and had an sensation that her face was entirely immersed in hot air. The girl looked at the slightly opened window listening closely to sounds coming from behind it. She listened to someone's conversation from other room. She recognized single sentences, but the whole thing had no meaning for her. She felt that she was starting to plunge in feverish sleep. Words of the boy ordering her to shut a window for the night appeared deep inside her subconscious mind, but she didn't want to get up and hadn't enough strength to do it. She fell asleep. Her dream was restless and images she saw in it were chaotic, devoid of any meaning. There was a middle of the night when she woke up again. The room plunged in a total darkness was lightened up only by the lighting of street lamp post casting anxious shadows on the wall opposite to the girl's bed. Rei turned on the back and had been fixing her eyes on the ceiling on which black lines were created by trees for a few minutes. Not knowing what to do with herself she tried to read something from them. She was feeling better than in the day, because her fever subsided, but her organism was still battling with an illness. Not being able to fall asleep, she sat down on the bed. She started listening to sounds reaching her ears. Somebody was watching TV somewhere in spite of such a late hour. Somewhere else a feral cat was mewing. The girl lay down again and returned to analyzing the sophisticated black patterns appearing on walls of the room. Her thoughts granted them new names and meanings. It took her a long minutes. She could not fall asleep again and on the top of all of that a head started aching her because of the runny nose.

"Insomnia, yes?" She thought raising from the bed once again. She took a walk around the room holding the watch with the shining digital display in the hand.

"1:21, beautiful hour..." She thought. She looked one more time in the direction of the window and went into the bathroom. When she came back, she noticed that a slight wind was shaking the curtains. Passing by the table she took the sleep-inducing pill which she got from the boy. She knew that taking them would be inevitable. She approached the window and stuck her neck out of it. The street close to the hotel was completely empty, there was no light in any of the windows.

"Such places really fall asleep at night." She thought comparing this view with the image of the city in which she was brought up. She lay the head on her arms and decided to stay in the window for a little longer. She noticed some strange shape flashing across the street. She watched it more closely noticing that it was a small man dressed like a circus clown. She was surprised, but she observed a shadowy figure until the one disappeared around the bend of the road. After a moment a next runner appeared. It seemed strange to Rei, so she decided to hide herself in the window all the time observing the surroundings. Bizarre sounds, laughers, strange singings, voices kind of reciting something were coming to her ears. They were becoming louder and louder with every consecutive second. Something very unusual was spotted by the girl's eyes. A parade of extraordinary individuals was marching on the street. Circus clowns dressed into colorful costumes, bizarrely twisted gymnasts, fire-eaters lightening surroundings up with a glitter of their flames over and over again. Black-haired girl observed the entire incident and her awareness started escaping somewhere. The sleep-inducing pill started to work. Laughers and conversations of the mysterious procession became exceptionally loud and unpleasantly horrifying. It appeared to the girl that somebody amongst the assembled company was calling her by the name. Although she was horrified, she continued her observation. A bearded, fat woman was walking in a pink dress along a street together with a giant carrying weights and a few Lilliputians dressed up as children and dwarfs on leashes were attached to his legs. Three-legged dancer leading a dog with two heads was running on a pavement. In the crowd one could see gentlemen in tuxedos carrying hats from which different things were jumping out. Strange, children's voices were flowing into ears of the girl, they seemed to pursue from behind her back, from the inside of the hotel accommodation.

"Rei, Rei, Rei..." They were reciting kind of being in the trance. The girl in the same moment noticed a dozen colorfully dressed people with little heads carrying richly ornamented sedan chair with some young woman with a long, fair hair.

"Rei-chan, join us..." Black-haired girl heard. Her eyes started shutting up, therefore she peeled off from the window and having closed it came back to the bed. She pressed the head to the pillow trying to hush up children's voices laughing behind the window, reciting pointless counting-out rhymes. A dream slowly embraced her organism and sounds from the outside became more and more quiet and quiet until they were at last completely silenced.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Rei woke up, when rays of sunshine burst through window panes and fell down on her sleepy face. The girl noticed with a relief that her cold was not as bad as the day before and she didn't have a fever, but in exchange a throat ached her. She sat down on the bed combing hair glued by sweat. She felt weak, perhaps after the medicine or after the night-time fight of her organism against the illness. She remembered events which she witnessed a few hours earlier, a complete confusion prevailed in her head, she didn't know whether what she saw had happened really, whether it was only a feverish sleep. She went to the window and stuck her neck out of it taking a deep breath. Air was cool, but it was possible to sense that the consecutive day also heralded hot weather. Rei stood in it the longer moment, but soon she decided to go to the bathroom in order to take a long, morning shower. The girl mused about the way she will start searching tracks which can help her solve the riddle of her strange dream and the necessity of the arrival at the small town. Water was flowing on her slender body and raven-black hair working on her refreshingly. After leaving the room, Rei went to the restaurant on the ground floor. The local was of average size, with few tables and white columns placed between them. The pots with climbing plants were placed by windows and wooden scaffoldings prepared specially for them stood nearby them. There were only a few guests inside, older couple and the bald man reading the newspaper. Rei stopped in the door reminding herself of her meetings with this man the day before. When she sat down by the table, the bald man looked at her from under the daily again. The girl ordered the food and while waiting for it she was looking around the room noticing that the mysterious man ate nothing but only read some paper. She felt embarrassed, she thought that he had tracked her. After finishing the breakfast she decided to go to the city to hang around a bit all over places which aroused the curiosity in her the day before. The bald man waited five minutes, and then he put his newspaper back and also moved toward the exit. Rei walking by the old hovel stopped for a moment. She tried to spy an older woman which she met during the first night in the city, but without the success, Masanori told the truth, the place was abandoned many years ago. After a few minutes of the walk black-haired girl came to the café familiar to her. She realized that Masanori had been sitting there at one of tables. The boy waved to her.

"You're on time, Rei-chan!" He said gladly.

"On time? And we arranged to meet?"

"No. Namely not directly, but we have always met exactly about 9:30 when we were children, don't you remember?"

"No, nothing has changed since yesterday". The girl replied sitting down on the chair next to the boy. "Are you feeling better?" Masanori asked.

"Yes... a bit better, but a throat aches me".

"It's great. Did you sleep well? There was terrible hot in the night..." Words of the boy puzzled black-haired girl, she didn't know how to answer.

"I think so... I had fever and very strange dreams. They were so terribly real, I don't know what to think about them".

"Tell me about them". The boy suggested.

"They were very intense, I dreamt that I woke up and I wanted to shut a window. When I looked out outside, it turned out that under my window some bizarre caravan, procession had been walking. It was compound of people dressed in colourful circus dresses, clowns, acrobats, short men, mistakes of the nature... you know for example bearded lady or thee-legged dancer... it was terrible... a singing of small children and somebody repeating my name accompanied the procession... or at least it seemed to me..."

Boy hearing the story of Rei went pale. He put the tea on the table.

"Rei, did you take the sleep pill as I asked you?"

"Yes... and what's this has got to do with it?"

"Unimportant... did something more happen? Do you remember some more details?" Masanori asked. "No, I had some other frantic dreams, but I don't remember them as well as this one". The boy sighed and came back to drinking his tea.

"You reacted strange when I told you about the dream..."

"No, but I know what could be the cause of this dream".

" Yes?"

"Probably some sounds coming from behind the window. You heard something in sleep and the brain thought uncanny history up, next time you'd better close the window, ok?" Rei corrected hair. What she heard a moment ago didn't have any meaning for her, but she decided to say yes.

"Ok, I'll remember". The girl moved from the chair and at that very moment she noticed that the bald man from the hotel was sitting behind her and was reading the same newspaper.

"Damn it!" She told quietly, so only Masanori could hear her.

"This bald coot. He lives in the same hotel as I and he walks after me everywhere..." The boy looked toward the man discreetly.

"What does he want from you? Perhaps it's some pervert?"

"I don't have a clue, it's already starting to really irritate me!" Masanori rose from the table showing Rei by a gesture of the hand to do exactly the same. Together they entered the interior of the café. The boy came up to the young woman who was working inside smiling widely.

"Hi, Shiho! Can you do something for me?" He asked.

"Always... and who's this?" She asked pointing at Rei. Shiho was a woman with black hair tied into the pony tail, she was over 20 years old. She was quite pretty, but not as much as Rei Hino.

"My girlfirend, Rei". Masanori replied without the moment of the thought. Shiho said hello to new friend.

"Hello, I'm Shiho Chitose".

"Rei Hino, but I'm not his..." The girl wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, when Masanori hushed her up.

"We don't have much time! I want to take Rei to the forest behind the café, to this part closed for guests. Can you let us go?"

"Yes, no problem. Go to the back". The girl replied with the smile stuck to the youthful face. Rei and Masanori entered the forest through the back door of the café. The black-haired girl was made mad, she waited for a moment when the waitress would disappear behind the closed doors.

"What are you thinking!" She shouted.

"Your girlfriend? How long do we know each other? 5 hours? Perhaps 6! How can you put such things around to people!" The boy tried to cushion the situation, he wanted to touch Rei and calm her. She knocked his hand off with a fast move and walked away from him.

"Rei, listen to me... I had to tell her this because I wanted her to let us go. After all you wanted to escape from this bald pal, right?"

"But why didn't you tell her the truth?"

"About the baldy who is tracking you? You don't know Shiho, she was ready to come up to him and to fight him off the café. It's better she heard the lie, she didn't ask for something what had been obvious for her..." Rei calmed herself, she took a deep breath.

"Ok, let's say I believe you. Now what?" She asked.

"Nothing, walk and admire what is around you". Masanori announced calmly. Black-haired girl noticed that she had been in the center of thick coniferous forest. Plenty of trees grew here and the place was bathed in the darkness and pleasant coolness despite very sunny weather. The birds were singing in branches, it seemed that the place had been located in the very heart of wild areas, the closeness of the city wasn't noticeable from there. Rei listened intently to sounds floating from every side recognizing the mountain stream's noise in them. She ran in its direction. Soon she was on a rocky bank of small river, which noise resounded through surroundings. The girl kneeled down by it soaking her hands in cold water. Masanori soon joined her.

"Do you like it?" He asked.

"Yes..." Rei replied.

"Is it also a place in which we met as children?" She asked gladly.

"No... actually I discovered it a few years ago. But I'm pleased that you like it". Black-haired girl got up correcting hair in which some lost web was entangled.

"The bald man will probably be waiting for me in the front of the café". She said with undertone.

"He can wait. If we go along the path to the north we'll leave the forest in completely different part of the city. And let the bald man sit beneath the café". Masanori announced laughing.

"I want to sit here for a while". The girl stretched her arms sitting on the stone.

"What are you doing in life?" The boy asked sitting down next to her.

"I study. The history and the ancient literature as major and religious studies as minor. Apart from that I'm looking after the temple of my grandfather. I don't have much time for other things".

"I understand. The trip to our sides is a rest from all of it for you, am I right?" Rei was puzzled and was thinking how to answer the friend. The truth was that she arrived here because the dream ordered her.

"It's exactly as you thinking, I had to cool down a bit. And you, what are you doing in life?"

"I have a break from the school, but the next year I'm going to Tokyo U, electronics".

"You shouldn't do it, the break will make you lazy..." The girl announced smiling.

"When I saw you for the first time, I had a feeling that a mysterious aura had surrounded you. I'm wondering what these sheets of paper for which you came back to the abandoned house were".

"Sheets of paper... ah you mean them... these were ofuda, my homerwork. As you see even on the holiday I must do a bit of work". Rei quickly invented a reply. The boy went quiet, it was apparent that he had wanted to change the subject of a conversation.

"Rei, do you have somebody?" He asked with a hesitation.

"What?"

"Do you have somebody in Tokyo? Do you go out with somebody?" Masanori became silent and prepared for the girl's outburst of the anger. He was surprised that her the verbal attack never came.

"No... I don't have... I already said that I don't have much time, also for my private life". Rei answered calmly, simultaneously getting up from the stone. She turned toward the path leading deep into the forest.

"But I don't think you want to listen about my life which is rather little exciting. Let us better walk to the city, or else this guy will guess that I'm here and he'll find me".

"Ok, as you wish". The boy replied seeing that his friend became sad when he had asked about her private life. He promised himself that he would never bring this topic up again. Soon, they both were on the footpath trampled down by the people from the small town.

"And you, do you have somebody?" The girl asked surprising her companion.

"No..." Masanori replied seriously and then he added joking.

"I knew that my princess from the childhood would come back to me".

"Whatever..." Rei replied hastening her steps. After going through the tangle full of webs and vermin, black-haired girl and her acquaintance reached to the asphalt route leading to the city centre and from there, straight to the hotel. Heat was unverable, so the girl decided to travel the road which was not giving a single square centimeter of the shadow as quickly as possible.

"I could at least take a sunglasses for us". The boy said.

"You could think about it". Rei announced. Her throat ached her more than in the morning, probably from the longer conversation or from the temperature difference between the forest and the sunny road. She decided to finish the meeting and have a nap for the entire afternoon. She wanted to get well as soon as possible and to start exploring the town using her extraordinary abilities.

"I have to return to the hotel. I'm feeling bad again and I must lie down". She announced.

"Ok, I hope that it's not my fault". The boy asked.

"I don't know, but thanks, you showed me such a pretty place. I liked it. I'll certainly go with you there when I cure myself from this terrible cold".

"Thanks that you came. See you". Masanori said diverging in the direction of his house. Raven haired girl was left alone on the path.

"It's your fault, Rei..." She thought clutching herself by the throat. After a few minutes she was in the street from which one could see the window of the hotel. She remembered her strange dream, horrifying procession of colorful figures taken alive from some ghostly circus. Ardent wave flooded her, disease returned and it reminded her of its existance. Rei noticed small object sparking in rays of the sunshine lying on the pavement. Interested, she went up closer, crouched down by it to see it more precisely. It turned out to be a small golden bell with red big ribon. In front of black-haired girl's eyes a figure of the dwarf dressed in the colourful dress with the gold bell hanging loosely on his neck appeared. Her eyes widened and the tide of chills hitting her body united with the wave of the heat. Her night phantom wasn't only a hallucination, it really happened. The girl put the bell to the pocket and quickly moved in the direction of the hotel. Going through the reception desk she noticed that bald guy was nowehere to be seen. She was relieved thinking about the Masanori's surprising idea and the trip to the forest. Coming into the room ,she put the bell on the bedside table and reach for the ofuda. She threw the magic paper at the gleaming object simultaneously pronouncing words of the spell and verging in the contemplative trance. Ofuda shone with delicate glitter and was entirely consumed by the fire appearing from nowhere. The bell waved and dissolved into thin air leaving after itself only the ash from the burnt sheet of paper.

"What the hell is going on here?" Rei asked herself. She observed the blank space in which a moment ago the strange object lay. Led by the impulse which she wasn't able to understand she ran up to the window. When she tried to open it, it turned out that it had been impossible, the window was jammed. The girl sat down on the bed, she felt faint and the throat started to hurt her even more.

"I'll take a nap and we'll see what happens later". She thought putting the head on the pillow. The dream came quite quickly. Rei dreamt, that she was a little girl and together with small Masanori she walked through coniferous forest behind the café. She walked slowly after the boy who was talking about something, but she didn't understand his words, she wasn't interested in them, because she was too busy with watching the nature surrounding her. At some point, she noticed the shape flashing between trunks of trees in the distance. She ran in its direction in spite of Masanori's outcries who asked her not to turn aside from the path. Black-haired girl could not keep up with the strange figure which quickened the pace. She was tired out and breathless, hot sweat covered her. She inhale the air into lungs with an effort and the dry throat burnt her as if an intense flame turned up in it. However she knew that she could not stop her pursuit, that she absolutely had to catch the enigmatic person. The forest became more and more dark and colder and black-haired girl felt more and more exhausted. Paradoxically the escaping figure was much more visible relative to the darkness as if she radiated some own, internal illumination. Rei noticed that it was the girl with curly, bright hair in the same age as Rei in the dream. She could hear the laughter of the child reaching her from the depths of the forest, from thickets, from behind the back, from everywhere around. She offered her a helping hand, she tried to call her by the name which she didn't remember, but the throat rebelled against her entirely. The mysterious apparition disappeared, she dissolved into thin air the same as the bell found on the pavement a few moments ago in the real world. Rei reached to the enclosure and having found the hole in it she got to the area of some forest clearing. As it turned out she was in the funfair. illumination on wooden attractions and on the large devil's wheel gleamed with different colours lightening the darkness of the forest like fairy lights. Voices, laughters, conversations sounded everywhere around, but the girl could not notice a single one person from whom they could originate. Suddenly all noises died away and they were replaced only by the swoosh of the wind among the branches of the trees. The small girl felt excruciating loneliness and sadness of the place which now seemed to her completely abandoned. The lone sounds of some melody started reaching her ears, she moved in their direction as hypnotized. The melody became louder and the girl recognised in it the known circus motive accompanying clowns entering the circus arena. The eyes of the girl saw the carousel carrying big figures of horses lighted by flashing fairy lights, revolving to the music. When Rei was closer it turned out the girl with long, curly, golden hair was sitting on it. She turned her head in the direction of Rei, smiling to her.

"Rei-chan. Join us". She asked. Terrified black-haired girl turned around with the intention of the escape. In the next part of the dream she wasn't a small child, but a young, adult girl. Someone's hands caught her, they immobilised her body. Rei tried to fight with them, to break free from their hug, however without any success, since her enemies were too strong and she was too weak. Members of the procession which she could see in the previous night surrounded her: fat bearded lady, short men painted colourfully, acrobats and fire-eaters, three-legged dancer holding the dog with two heads. The girl tried to scream, but the shout could not leave her mouth.

The girl woke up suddenly, simultaneously inhaling the air into lungs. She sat down on the bed clutching her head. She had a fever, breathed with difficulty and she was very sweaty. The throat ached her the same way as during the dream.

"Damn nightmare". She thought clenching her fist. She knew that her dream hadn't been natural and somebody sent it to her trying to tell her something. Raising her head the girl noticed in astonishment that there had been a dark night, and she had spent almost all day long in the bed instead of one hour. Getting up, she looked at the watch on which the glowing numbers were seen: 19:11. Rei recalled, that exactly at the same hour in the previous night she had witnessed the horrifying phenomenon. She went to the window trying to open it, but without a success. Somebody caused that she couldn't watch the night-time show that time. The noise of sung children's rhyme and laughters of persons with sex difficult to determine came through the pane. The inside of the room had been lightening up by red flames of fire-eaters every couple of minutes. The girl decided to act and to face up apparitions which were tormenting her. Going to the exit door she felt poorly and dizzy and the belly started aching her. On the corridor, she ran up to the big window which also turned up to be closed. Children's laughters filled the entire space, but they were as quiet as whispers coming from a distance. Rei was watching colourful shapes moving along the street through the dirty pane trying to notice the girl with golden hair from the dream among them. She was sure that she could hear her name said by the choir of voices. She ran down the stairs to the main hall, but it turned out that the front door had also been closed and in addition the receptionist was nowhere to be seen. The girl stopped in order to rest.

"Damn..." She swore holding her aching belly. She wandered in corridors trying to find some other exit from the building which wouldn't be locked. She thought that the problem with the door and windows could have supernatural cause and prepared the ofuda in order to throw it. Suddenly she felt someone's presence behind herself and she instinctively turned around.

"Don't leave these walls!" She heard a firm voice. The bald man in a red short-sleeved shirt and white trousers was standing before her, the same man who had been walking after her for two days.

"Who are you?" Rei asked surprised. She reached inside her pocket looking for her transformation pen.

"I don't recommend it. You're in awful state and you wouldn't have a chance in the direct fight against me. And apart from that the virus which you have inside is preying on the magic".

"Virus? Magic?" The girl was very surprised that the man knew about her secret.

"Who are you? What do you know about what is happening behind windows?" She shouted.

"Little, but enough to know that you cannot go there now". The bald man announced quietly.

"Go with me to my room. I'll try to answer all your questions". He added. Rei hesitated whether she should do what the stranger had asked her, in one thing he was right - she was barely standing.

"Better let us hurry up. The influence of what is happening on the street is the greatest here". The bald man urged the girl.

"Ok. I'll go with you". Rei agreed and the man told her the way to his room. The interior of the room was furnished identically as every other room in the hotel, black-haired girl didn't find anything what could tell her whom the secret man was.

"Sit down." The bald man asked her. The girl sat down in the armchair, clutching her head burning from fever. The man took the bottle of whisky and two glasses out of a bedside table. He poured one glass for himself looking at Rei.

"No, thanks..." Black-haired girl answered clutching her belly.

"I have a stomachache... now I will swallow rather nothing". She added.

"Please yourself, your loss." The bald man said sipping from the glass.

"The virus is spreading over your entire organism, we'll have to act more quickly". He added.

"You promised that you would answer all my questions, so who are you?" Rei asked.

"You know me. It's me who sent the dream about this place to you". The bald man announced calmly. The girl was surprised, but she didn't say a word listening to him.

"I'm called Dale Arthur Knight. I'm the international hunter of demons. Following the track of one of these sons of a bitch I reached all the way to Japan. I thought that I'll be able to deal with him quickly, but unfortunately I miscalculated". The man stopped in order to drink the Whisky.

"The demon joined this place up too much, he took root in it, he have been here for years and became the part of this world. Normally this isn't possible for these suckers, unless somebody takes advantage of their help and invite them to his reality. Something like this had to happen here..."

"What about me? Why I'm needed here" Rei asked.

"A person who was present during waking the demon up could be helpful in sending him to oblivion". The man replied looking straight in Rei's eyes.

"You must have mistook me for somebody else! I've been here for the first time in my life and only because I had the strange, prophetic dream, which you supposedly sent to me! I arrived becasue of you!"

"It seems to me, that somebody messed your memory very much..." The bald man announced. Rei recalled Masanori and his story about the fact that they were good friends in the past. What Dale Knight said could be the truth what frightened the girl very much.

"When I met with the demon for the first time, I looked to his mind and I saw the three of children in it: two girls and one boy. The aura of the magic was circling around one of them, so I could establish contact with her present version and send her the invitation to this place. It had to be you. And by the way, what's your name?"

"Rei, Rei Hino..." The girl replied.

"Ok, Rei... I feel the magic living inside you, perhaps you'll be useful to something more than just being the bait for the demon..."

"Who is the demon which you're chasing? What do you know about him? What was this procession which I could see last night? Why did you track me?" The girl asked questions. After a moment she went quiet clutching her head. Dale was by her very quickly, his hand touched her burning brow.

"Fuck, probably 40 Celsius..." He replied frightened.

"When did you start feeling bad?"

"I don't know, a throat ached me right after the arrival. I thought that it was the fault of the downpour on which I got soaked, but now I can see that I'm feeling I lot worse..." The girl announced touching the belly.

"What symptoms do you have?"

"Sore throat, fever, I'm weakened and I'm poured in sweat, I had terrible dreams and now a stomach is aching me".

"I sense that there's a very dangerous virus preying on the magic in you which is slowly destroying your body. You'll lose you mind when it reaches the brain, girl. I stopped you before from using this object which you're holding in the pocket, because you wouldn't survive it... Do you remember when you could become infected, did you meet the strange person?" Rei had been puzzled for the longer moment but in the end she remembered that illness had caught her right after the meeting with the old lady.

"I'm not sure..." She replied after the minute.

"Were you in the contact with somebody from the procession?"

"No... I could see them only from the window... But the next day I found the bell on the street which belonged to one of clowns. I carried it to the room and when I tried to use my spells on it , it simply dissolved into thin air".

Knight's eyes became round from terror.

"You touched their object?" He asked drinking the glass of Whisky to the bottom. Rei got up from armchair.

"Where are you going?" Dale asked.

"My stomach aches me, I have to go now". Rei answered heading towards the door. Knight barred her way.

"I must take care of you, in the morning there'll be too late you too. Sit down on the chair!"

"But..."

"Sit on your ass!" The girl unwillingly did what he had asked her for.

"Wait here, I'll help you right away". The bald man announced coming to the green rucksack in the angle of the room. He took the jar with strange liquid out of it, Rei was sure that substance was glowing with internal brilliance. The man ran up to black-haired girl giving her the container.

"Drink it! It's bright water, thanks to which I was invisible to the demon, but the fuck with it! I got you here and it's my fault that you're in such a state now! Drink as much as you manage!" Rei put the jar in her mouth and started drinking. Wonders never cease! The substance was tasty. The girl decided to come back to her room, but suddenly she felt that all stamina was flowing away from her body. She lost consciousness falling on the floor, fortunately Dale Knight caught her saving her from the fall. The man put the girl back to the bed, and then he picked up the key to her room which fell out of the pocket in her trousers. He decided to carry her to her own bed so her organism could fight with magic illness in the peace there.

Going up the stairs to the top floor, he looked at the window behind which the last persons of bizzare procession were walking. He laid the girl on the bed and he came up to the window which he managed to open with an ease. He stuck his neck out of it, simultaneously taking the revolver from behind his belt.

"Fuck off from her!" He shouted to the short man, which was strolling around the dark street. The guy looked at him smiling crookedly. The bald man aimed at him the weapon.

"Say your boss, that he can fuck himself!" He shouted pulling the trigger. The bullet coated with inscriptions in some strange, forgotten language was fired from the gun. Short man was hit with the bullet, fell down on the pavement and died turning into the swarm of colourful tapes. Bald man feeling satisfaction shut the window and headed towards the exit.

"Sweat dreams". He said looking at Rei and then left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Arthur Knight woke up at five o'clock in the morning. He had been doing it every day for over 15 years, since the old esoteric master had taught him meditation with the mandala as a greeting for every coming day. The nude bald man was sitting on the floor and the tablet with large circle radiating in all colors of the rainbow was placed before him. The mandala let the man communicate with his spiritual inner life, with intuition thanks to which he was able to sense every energy penetrating physical reality. He was able to use the help of good spirits travelling in his surroundings as well as to protect himself against demons and other manifestations of bad energy. His meditation was not successful, exactly the same way as in the previous night in the hotel. The aura of the demon having power over the land was too dark to be evaporated by a delicate light of the Knight's soul, leading the man to positive mood. He knew that he would have to act quickly and efficiently so that the city wasn't irremediably contaminated. A thought of Rei Hino, the girl he had met the day before, helped the bald man to the return to the reality. The demon hunter was very interesting whether the girl recovered and what her frame of mind was. He decided to meet with her as soon as possible to talk longer and find the cause of her amnesia or deduce where she could become infected with a magic virus. The man got up off the floor, came to the tablet with the mandala and covered it carefully with white linen. He stood by the opened window, watching the place on the street where he had got rid of one of the strange, colorful procession participants. After morning meditation, Dale Knight checked the weapon which he had never parted with. The handgun made of the metal alloy found in the meteorite which had fallen down in the very heart of the Sahara desert centuries ago, was in a perfect state. The hunter would never let even one scratch appear on its surface. Every bullet of the gun carried the inscription in some forgotten language, the charm connected with it, being able to pierce through magic illusions and destroy what should not belong to the material world. The man was dissatisfied, because he could not control his emotions in the night, which resulted in wasting one of precious bullets on insignificant pawn of the evil power which he was supposed to fight in the near future. There was a fine weather outside, therefore the bald man decided to leave the building. Having taken the loaded weapon, he left tight walls of the hotel accommodation. He was in a garden situated right before the entry to the dining room. The slight wind waved leaves of trees and bushes growing there and calming sounds of the mountain stream sounded from a distance. Dale put the sunglasses on, which was supposed to protect him from rays of the Sun radiating from behind clouds. The place in which he stayed was looking common all the way to pain and didn't point at all bizarre events which he witnessed since he had crossed border of small town. Arthur knew only that the black-haired girl was a key for solving the riddle surrounding him.

Arthur Knight spent almost an hour on contemplations. Sleepy figures of people from the hotel were walking from the dining room toward hills which were the only tourist attraction of that place. The man noticed the girl approaching him. Rei was pale and looked weakened, but in spite of it she gently smiled seeing her new acquaintance.

"Sit down here." The bald man suggested pointing at the empty chair. Rei willingly fulfilled his request.

"Thank you for the yesterday's help". She said looking at black glasses of the man.

"No problem. How are you feeling?"

" It really had a good effect on me, what you gave me to drink. Fever subsided and all pains eased off. I'm feeling faint very much and I completely don't have an appetite. But... thank you one more time ".

"Don't thank me. You're the key to defeating my enemy and therefore I must protect you." Knight announced simultaneously taking glasses off.

"I don't understand what my role is in everything, but I think I can trust you. I'll listen what you have to the say and I'll help you to learn what is really happening here."

"I'm glad we reached an agreement so quickly. Do you want something to drink, to eat?"

"I said that I didn't have an appetite. I'll wait another few hours".

"Please yourself."

"Listen... the thing you gave me... did it destroy this virus? Am I already healthy?" The girl asked gripping the pen to the transformation in her hand.

"You aren't! The virus is only put to sleep! I told you about it last night! Weren't you listening?"

"I had forty degrees Celsius of fever. Details of the conversation could flee me, don't you think?"

"Right... the virus can be destroyed only by its creator if he have the willingness to do it, or it disappears along with the creator after his death. Otherwise it won't be possible to destroy it. Therefore please forget about using your powers and avoid the contact with physical demonstrations of the demon like the plague. Unless you want to lose your mind."

"Why do you know so much about this virus? And how can you be sure that exactly this one attacked me?"

"I've seen a lot of similar cases during my travels. I've seen the man destroyed by this virus, it wasn't too pleasant view. I'm sure, because I feel its intensifying energy in you, the same as in that poor wretch a lot of years ago."

"What happened to him?" Rei asked interested.

"You don't want to know." Dale replied unwillingly putting his black glasses on.

"And you don't want to tell me."The girl knew that the man was not going to tell her anything and she didn't feel like listening to about what kind of excruciating torments could meet her. She looked at the fat woman opening windows of the dining room. Heat air approached the surroundings of the hotel like every other day of the black-haired girl's visit.

"If you want me to cooperate with you, you must tell me much more. Everything you know. Starting with, how you knew about my secret and how you were able to communicate with me through the vision. I don't like situations in which somebody knows everything, is hiding secrets and I don't have a clue about what is happening around me."

"Yesterday's night, your memory had to be really not in the best shape. I told you how I got in touch with you. I looked into memories of the demon and I saw faces of the ones who he had seen a moment after his awakening. This demon has the ability to notice the truth and therefore he realized that an aura of the ancient energy had surrounded you, although you hadn't woken up then. Am I right?"

"Yes. And how you got in touch with me? Are you a telepath?"

"No... nothing of the kind. Does any bald guy must be a telepath?" The man announced pointing at his shining skin on the skull.

"I have a spark of the Living Flame from Mars, spark from the magnificent temple ascending in red sands in ancient times of the Golden Millennium. I got in touch with other spark of this being inside you."

"You're uninformed." Rei replied laughing.

"You probably meant the Silver Millennium. You supposedly know very well who I am but you're making such mistakes." She added.

"It's you who is uninformed. Have you even thought where the power of your magic and your friends' came from? Didn't you wonder why your earlier incarnations had such things as never-ending energy sources, corridors leading through the time and space? The Silver Millennium was only a shadow of more wonderful age, echo of inter-dimensional kingdom which brought time, space, energy and life under control. Don't you have occasionally dreams about the power, calling from the world forgotten a long time ago? The Martian Fire is one of miracles born in those times. It's a living being, cosmic awareness crossing border of the space and time. Unfortunately only sparks of its beauty survived in our aeon. You're lucky to have one inside yourself."

"I don't believe in what you're talking about. I think that you're inventing that's all now. It's just nice vocabulary and fairly good imagination."

Dale got up from a chair, went around the table in order to be as close as possible to girl. Rei turned in the direction of his face.

"You've seen so much and you don't want to believe your own past." He said.

"When you're alone in the dark room, ask the fire in your mind to tell you about times lost long ago. You'll become convinced that I'm telling the truth." He added. The man returned to his chair. He looked at the face of black-haired girl with stern eyesight.

"And have a serious talk with one of you. She isn't telling you the whole truth. She has never said it."

Rei didn't want to continue discussion about her past incarnations and present acquaintances with the man which she got to know a few hours earlier. She knew that he had been an unusual man because he helped her using means which she didn't understand. However the ancient history of the doubtful genuineness wasn't subject of the first importance. Her amnesia, the bizarre procession marching through that small town and the demon which supposedly was responsible for everything. Stopping him was important for the girl, because she considered herself to be the guardian protecting the planet from that kind of dangers.

"Well. Let us leave it at the moment, because there are urgent matters. What are we dealing with? What do you know about this demon?"

"Very Little. Telling the truth, I've never met him personally. As a matter of fact I am not sure, whether he has any material form. I met only his manifestation, the man named Matheus. I came across him in Europe, he was travelling with the circus group, you know, bearded lady, some strongman, a few animals, nothing really interesting. As it turned out he kidnapped children from the city to the purpose known only to himself. I managed to defeat him easily, but then I was really surprised. His troupe wasn't real, they dissolved into thin air as soon as this shit of a man lost consciousness. I discovered that children and all other people who were in contact with him had lost contact with the world, they looked as if somebody excised their minds.

"Or stole their souls." The girl butted in.

"Exactly. What's more Matheus was also in the same state. Exorcisms that I learnt in the Vatican at one time betrayed something even more unusual. The guy was under the influence of some very dangerous demon, the being from the ancient world. I had a momentary insight into the mind of this creature, I saw the moment of his new awakening and the attempt to take over the control of three of children. I've seen you, Rei."

"Firstly, I don't remember that event. Secondly, you said a moment ago, that everyone who that monster touched lost their personality. I somehow feel and think normally, something's not right here."

"Perhaps you were protected by the Martian Flame? Perhaps this demon wasn't able to control you?"

"Perhaps it was exactly like this."

"Tell me what happened after you arrived in this small town?"

"That's really strange. It all started that, going in the heavy rain to the hotel, I passed some house in which the old woman waited for her granddaughter. Nothing interesting, but the following day started taking a bizarre turn. I met some boy who claimed that I had known him in the childhood and I spent lot of time with him. He met me in the second day of my visit here, isn't it strange? It turned out that the house which I saw at the night had been in fact vacated and there was no old woman in it. Later at the night I saw the bizarre procession and I heard somebody calling my name. And later, you know what I did, because you tracked me all the time."

"This boy whom you're talking about, is he the same whom you escaped with from me?"

"Yes, that's him. I thought that you were some pervert."

"He appeared in the right time and appropriate place to meet you. Isn't it at least strange?"

"Coincidences are happening." The girl answered looking at clouds moving all over the sky.

"I don't believe in them." The bald man replied.

"Don't you think that he is associated with everything what's going on?" He added.

"I don't know... he seems completely normal. But from the other hand, the day before the procession's night he insisted that I closed a window and took a sleeping pill. As if he knew, what I could have seen if I was not sleeping. As if he wanted to protect me from something. Apart from that, he led me to some abandoned funfair in the first day. The funfair and the parade of circus freaks in one day, don't you think it's not a coincidence?"

"As I said, I don't believe in coincidences. You must pay attention to that boy, until you know whom you're really dealing with. What will you do now?"

"I'll go to house of this old lady, I'll look around there, perhaps I'll find some clues."

"And if I say it's dangerous too for you, will you listen and won't go there?"

"No. You know it." The girl answered.

"And then I'll meet with Masanori and I'll press him to tell me about the past." She added,

"Ok. But I'll go to this hovel with you. I have already rescued your butt once, better if this time I'll be closer."

"Please yourself." Rei peeled off from the table. She turned to the bald man just to disappear in a front door to the hotel a minute later.

"We'll meet in half an hour." She said heading to the stairwell.

Rei, prepared for the meeting with the unknown and armed in the box of ofuda and Dale Arthur Knight keeping her company approached the old house in which Rei sheltered a few days earlier during the rain and met the mysterious old woman. The Sun then was hanging high above the horizon pouring the unpleasant heat over the small town. Dale stood under the tree so that coolness of the shadow secured his bald pate from hot rays.

"Is it here? Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes. I have been here twice."

"It looks like abandoned for ages. We must look around."

"How are you going to get inside?" The girl asked looking at old walls covered with green plants.

"Like this." Knight replied coming up to the door. He broke the rust-eaten padlock with strong movement of the hand. It fell down on the pavement smashing into few parts. The man quickly got to the interior of the homestead taking the handgun out. The girl cautiously followed his track. The inside of the house stank of the old age, it was dark because windows were covered with wooden boards. Webs covered everything with a coarse layer of dust.

"What a mess. The man walked away and the nature returned." Arthur commented on the inside of the flat.

"Exactly. Why do you need a handgun?" Rei asked pointing at the weapon of the man.

"We don't know what to expect." The bald man replied.

"But handgun, against the demon?"

"Its bullets have spells engraved. They won't destroy him, but they will inflict fairly good pain on him."

Rei went to the door leading to the next room. There was even darker and dirtier than in the room which she left a moment ago. The girl came up to the desk standing by the wall, removing jumbles of dust and webs from her way. She noticed the frame with image of some girl with blonde hair. She watched the picture closely and her eyes widened from amazement.

"I know her... I remember her... I don't know how it's possible, but I remember her..." She said looking at her companion. The girl in a photo with blue eyes and fair hair was smiling radiantly.

"Leave it on its place. We don't know what we're dealing with." Dale gave Rei an advice.

"Look at these." He said pointing at wall full of cuttings from newspapers. The black-haired girl read headlines of articles carefully. "Tragedy in the funfair. Tragic death of the child at the park." "The accident with children involved. One lost her life." All of them were written the similar tone and concerned the same event. Rei looked around having noticed that she was in a children's room. A doll resembling a small child sat on the bed. She had golden, curly hair and blue eyes identically as the girl from the photograph. She was dressed in the same blue dress. Rei rested her hands against the dusty top of the desk.

"Let us leave from here. This place is filling me with fear and sadness." She said.

"A terrible tragedy took place here. Or a more than one tragedies. Walls are leaked with tears." Dale added. After a quick visit in the kitchen and the bathroom, also filled by spiders building their structures and dust settling on them, both decided to enter the biggest room of the house. Seeing what was hidden behind his door, Knight impulsively tightened the hand on the weapon and ordered the girl to hide behind his back. In the middle of the room old, baked candles and books with almost entirely burnt sheets lay. A circle surrounding other geometrical symbols was drawn on the floor. It was known immediately, that some dark and forbidden ritual had been conducted there.

"What did happen here? Did somebody invited the demon to this world here?" Rei asked preparing her sheets with spells.

"No. This is a zone of the transformation rather than a gate. Somebody was subjected to the transformation here. It can even be not associated with what we're looking for. And hide your ofuda. I said, you should still not use them."

"Ok, ok..." Rei agreed unwillingly.

"Did you find something what could explain a meeting with the apparition?" She asked.

"No, but we certainly know that some girl died and somebody could not be reconciled with it. Perhaps it pushed that woman to establish contact with the demon and invite him to this world. Or maybe the demon was responsible for the death of the child and the woman used the magic, changed into something horrible only in order to take a revenge on him."

"More riddles appeared and there are no answers." Reu summed the entire conversation up.

"Yes, let us leave from here, because as you told before, this place is saturated with sadness and tears. And maybe with a great hate also."

When they both left the hovel, the noonday sun reigning over the city greeted them.

"Now I'll try to meet with Masanori and question him about everything he knows. I hope that he won't be cheating me."

"Do you want him to guard you?"

"Common, it's only one boy."

"Appearances can be deceptive, you can be in a danger."

"No. I don't want him to see you. He thinks you are a pervert who was looking at me all the time. It'll be better, if I meet with him alone."

"All right. Please yourself. But be vigilant. And you must return to a hotel before with night, otherwise I won't be able to protect you."

"All right." Rei left the man and took the mobile phone out and tried to call the number which the day before she got from the boy.

"Masanori? Is it you?" She asked, when somebody spoke on the other side of line.

"Listen, can we meet today?"

"Rei, I'm pleased that you're calling. When?" The boy answered her.

"I don't know, but as soon as possible. I must talk with you about something very important."

"Yeah okay, can you come to my home?"

"And how I am supposed to know where you live! I was never there." The girl said aloud. Some women looked at her suprised.

"Rei... yes... after all you forgot about everything... where are you now?"

"In front of the house of the old woman, close to the café in which we met recently."

"Get on into the bus. There is only one line here so you won't get lost. Get off on the fourth stop. I will be waiting for you. Thanks for calling."

"Ok see you later." - Rei replied finishing the call. She came up to the bus stop as Masanori instructed her. She waited for the bus a dozen minutes, hiding from a heat of the sun under a little wooden shade of the stop. The girl thought about what she had seen in the vacated house of old woman, she tried to remember the face of the child with golden hair which she had met in her dream of the previous night. The bus drove up close the stop immediately opening the door. The driver leaned out of a window in order to urge Rei lost in contemplation.

"Are you getting on, or not?" He said waving the hand.

"Yes.. yes, I'm sorry." The girl quickly ran into the interior of the vehicle. There was a heat there the same as on the street and there was horrible stuffiness in addition. Rei noticed, that only one old woman travelled by bus apart from her and the driver. The girl sat down on the second end of the vehicle. She didn't feel like talking with anybody, therefore she preferred to keep such a distance from the stranger that the probability of the accidental chat was as lowest as possible. She sighed remembering her long and inconvenient journey to the small town. She was counting stops passed by the machine, expecting the one which had any meaning for her. She looked through the pane seeking the familiar face of the boy. After a dozen minutes, she saw the familiar view which meant that she had reached her destination. She left the tin inside with hot microclimate difficult to withstand and found herself in the open air where, as it turned out, a gentle wind bringing relief for everyone bathed in summer heat.

"Hi Rei! You found me quickly!" Masanori came up to the girl.

"It wasn't difficult."

"How are you?" The boy asked expressing a concern.

"Much better than yesterday. Probably I will get well soon."

"It's great."

"Masanori, we must talk about something. It's very important."

"Okay, you told me a moment ago. We'll go to my home and you'll tell me everything, okay?"

"All right, since I arrived here in this hot box, I have no choice. Do you live a far away from here?"

"No, no far. A few minutes of a walk. Come with me."

Masanori and Rei very quickly reached the flat of the boy. The girl looked around noticing nothing unusual. She could see the standard furniture: table, chairs, bed, some cupboard with books. The boy asked her to sit down on the sofa and went to the kitchen to take something for drinking. When he came back, he joined the girl.

"Thanks, for visiting me."

"You'll say I should know this place because I met you here when we were children?"

"No, rather not. You were never here earlier. Or at least I don't remember it."

Rei was overjoyed hearing his comment. After a moment she grew more serious.

"Masanori, I'm sorry, but I must know. Answer my questions, please." She said.

"Of course, what would you like to know?" Masanori asked not expecting what exactly the girl meant.

"Our meeting in the first day of my visit here, it wasn't a coincidence, right?"

"What's the problem? Certainly it was a coincidence. How was I supposed to know that you turned up in our city?" The boy answered laughing.

"I don't believe in coincidences. Why did you order me to fall asleep and close the window in the night? Why did you react so strange when I told you about my dream? What is happening here Masanori? What are you hiding from me? Please, answer me because I don't have a time for this." The black-haired boy rose from the couch.

"Rei! Do you feel well? What are you talking about?"

"You knew what could happen at night. Did you know about the bizarre procession, who are they? Where are they come from?" The girl rose from the couch. She started being anxious.

"Rei, what's going on?" Masanori was worried about mental condition of his friend.

"Who was the girl who played with us? What happened with her? Did she live in this abandoned house? What happened when we were children?"

"Rei, I like you because I have excellent memories from the childhood concerning you. But this time you really went over the edge. Let us change the subject, please."

"I won't change it! Yesterday I experienced the hell after the contact with this procession. Last night I was ill, terribly ill and anything could have happened if somebody didn't help me. And you warned me against the cold at night. Did you want to tell me something, to warn me?"

"Rei, enough! I didn't know that you had trouble with the head but I won't let you chat about such nonsense in my house and directed at me. I don't feel like talking to you any longer. Really. Rei, leave my house, please." The boy said very firmly. Rei noticed bother in his voice.

"Okay, please yourself. I'll learn what is going on with your help or without. Goodbye and thanks for the yesterday's meeting in the café. I thought that we'll be able to become friends, but... I'm sometimes wrong about people" The girl came up to the door.

"Don't come to me anymore." Masanori said. to her

"I don't have such an intention." Rei concluded conversation and left the flat of the boy. Masanori leaned against the door.

"I tried to protect you, you stupid..." He muttered out of clenched teeth.

Rei lay on the back looking at the ceiling. She could not fall asleep again. Her insomnia could have a few causes, starting from the most down-to-earth as the hot, summer night not giving a respite, irritation resulting from everything what happened to her recently, in particular from the conversation with her old acquaintance, up to supernatural causes like influence of the demon living somewhere in the neighborhood or illnesses, which could be dangerous to her life, even in dormant state. The girl occupied her mind with looking at shadows of trees moving on walls and ceiling to the rhythm of the wind, naming them and giving them meanings. She didn't want to watch the strange play of light behind the window, to listen to the blood-curdling rhyme and whispers repeating her name. She hoped that the bizarre phenomenon wouldn't appear in the consecutive night. She remembered the morning conversation with Arthur about the Golden Millennium and the Martian Living Flame. She smiled at the very thought, how the man thought such nonsense up, but after a moment she realized that since he knew about her abilities and the past a grain of truth could be in his story. She remembered how the bald man mentioned the spark of the Martian flame which inside her. This fire was supposed to be a living being, crossing border of time and space. Maybe thanks to it he had preternatural abilities, visions about what was going to happen, prophetic dreams? Maybe thanks to it she was able to see what was imperceptible for others even before her first transformation? Dale also said that during a meditation she will be able to reach the fire in her, will be able to talk with it, to get to know it better. The girl had meditated a lot of times, but she hadn't thought about her fire as of the living being, she had never tried to establish the dialogue with it. She closed eyes trying to be caught into the trance, to go deep into herself, to reach the spark which was supposed to exist somewhere deep inside her soul. She silenced the mind from all thoughts, dissociated herself from aural stimuli seeking from behind the window and from the inside other rooms in the hotel. She imagined herself nude and afloat in the boundless emptiness, filled up with coolness contrasting with the warmth surrounding the physical her body. The integrity of her mind was brought under control by one thought: getting the spark of the Flame from her inside and establishing contact with it. After a moment of dragging on and on, completely nothing happened. Rei was stubborn, it didn't stop her meditation and she succeeded. A glitter appeared under her hands, in the place of her heart,. At first little and shapeless, it very quickly assumed the living-red form of the burning charlock. Rei felt clearly someone's presence, closeness of some disembodied intelligence.

"Who are you? Were you with me all the time? Did you keep me company the entire life?" She asked. The fire gently glittered lightening the space up around the body of the girl. In the same moment visions started flowing into Rei's mind, images of the past. She could see herself hurling a fireball, watched the fire bird flying to her opponent. She felt fiery disks being formed in her hands, her muscles of hands reacted as if she drew an ardent bow. She remembered all her spells and then she realized that she had known that the fire which she used as the weapon was much more than only offensive charm, it was a part of some ancient esoterics, which died aeons ago.

"Now I understand." She said smiling to herself. Knight didn't cheat her. The story about the Golden Millennium could also turn out to be the truth.

"You really can you see beyond the time and space?" She asked herself groping for an answer in the subconscious.

"If yes, show me please what happened when I was a little girl. What did I do in this city many years ago? I must know the truth." She said plunging hands in the flame dancing before her face. She heard the strange signal, electronic sound coming from a distance, somewhere from a world apart. Sound was becoming louder and louder until it reached the flame, blowing it like a strong gale. Rei violently got back to reality. Shaking the temporary confusion off, she realized that sound had had a very down-to-earth source. Her mobile phone rang on the desk. When the girl took it, it turned out that Masanori wanted to get in touch with her.

"It's the middle of the night!" The girl wasn't too pleased with interruption of the contemplative trance.

"Rei, you must listen to me! You are in great danger! I didn't tell you the whole truth, I didn't tell you what actually had happened in the park then! This woman... this woman wants to take revenge on you! It is she who planned everything... I was a part of it... Rei, forgive me please!"

"What woman? What are you talking about? Talk more slowly, because I can't understand you!"

"There's no time! Rei, they are already here! Your arrival began everything, it's not possible to stop it! Rei, escape when you still can! Rei..." The telephone connection with the boy was severed. The girl didn't know what to do. She was afraid that Masanori had been in danger, she didn't want something bad to happen to him, even after her earlier meeting with him. She was a woman-warrior, she could not avoid the fight only because of being afraid of exposing herself to the magic attack by the virus, asleep deep in her body. She took the rucksack with magic sheets and ran out of the room, not even troubling with closing the door. It was before eleventh at night, therefore the girl hoped that she would manage to catch the bus and to reach the flat of the boy in time. She ran through the landscape plunged into darkness full of street lamp casting columns of a cold light on the pavement and puddles in which neon lights of nearby cafés were mirrored. Surroundings were abandoned, Rei saw only two personal cars passing by. In the same time, Dale Knight led with his old instinct decided to check what happened with his new friend. When he reached the level on which her room was , he clenched fists with an anger. The opened door announced that the girl hadn't listened to his warnings and alone left the hotel at night.

"Fuck! You idiot!" He swore coming back for his weapon.

The big bus stopped by the bus stop and Rei quickly took the place on one of seats at the very end of the vehicle. This time she was a lonely passenger. She was looking at surroundings through the dirty pane on which glitter of the lamp shone every couple of minutes. The journey lasted longer than in the day, but perhaps it was only her imagination. Looking out of the window, Rei noticed the landscape she had before her very eyes didn't resemble what she had remembered from the day before. It was darker because the vehicle moved to peripheries of the small town, covered by thick forests. The girl became nervous, she rose from the chair and ran up to the driver.

"Excuse me, but I think that this is the bus going to the city, has something changed?" She asked. At the same moment the driver turned to her and it turned out that he had a head of a hen. The girl moved back a few steps.

"Damn it! I stepped right in the shit." She thought.

The driver started jabbering at her and the door of the vehicle opened. The girl didn't know what to do, but urging of the strange bird man caused, that she quickly went outside. She had two possibilities: come back to the bus and to the strange being sitting behind its steering wheel, or to travel into the unknown into the very heart of dark forest. She decided on the second alternative, knowing that the confrontation with the cock-man could lead to a magic fight which she was afraid of. Going along the path, the girl made herself aware, that the landscape had been strangely familiar to her. After a moment she recalled her dream. She remembered how she had been chasing some small girl escaping in dimwits along thicket. Everything seemed t very realistic to her then, as if chased her in reality, in some kind of trance rather than in a dream. She stated in astonishment that the track extremely had reminded surroundings which she dreamt of. She recalled the continuation of her nightmare. She knew that the dream could turn out to be prophetic, but she didn't stop heading ahead. It turned out that she had reached the entry to the abandoned funfair, but she noticed soon that it hadn't been so abandoned. When the girl crossed the gate, lights on the merry-go-round standing in the distance went on, similarly to the lighting of the big Ferris wheel and breaking down ruins of roller coaster. A music started coming from the inside of wooden attractions, the street hubbub, the laughter of children and adults, calling of some employee. Everything was acoustically revived, took on new color amongst blackness of the night. Unfortunately voices were only what senses of the girl registered, not a single one man appeared around her as sound effects were broadcasted from the tape recorder hidden somewhere. It turned out that Rei wasn't alone, mysterious figures started approaching her from various parts of the park. The girl noticed the very fat woman with a beard, the muscleman with shaved head and strange crooked facial expression, the very short woman in the white dress holding the two-headed dog, a few clowns dressed in shredded uniforms, looking at black-haired girl from under stuck, round noses, the three-legged dancer smoking cigarettes, fire-eaters and jugglers dancing in the distance. The girl knew that these unusual characters didn't have a good intentions towards her. She took the ofuda out of the rucksack preparing for the defense. One of clowns and the obese woman were approaching her closer and closer, they almost touched her body.

"Rin, pyou...: She wanted to attack them with her spell, but she felt a great headache. She fell down on her knees clutching her forehead and her rucksack along with magic sheets landed in a mud. Figures approached her at arm's length distance, they started surrounding her, swinging as if they wanted to invite her for some bizarre play. A confusion ruled in Rei's head, thoughts swarmed her one after the other. The girl could hear somebody repeating her name, rhyme deprived of any meaning whispered by children's chorus.

"I could listen to Knight." She thought.

At the same time, the bald hunter of demons knocked at Masanori's door. He stood beneath his flat, hitting the door louder and louder. He had to meet with the boy and decided that he won't stop until Masanori wakes up. He was ready to destroy the door only to get inside. Masanori opened the door after a few minutes.

"What's the problem? Who are you man? Don't you know which hour is?" He asked sleepy.

"Where is Hino Rei?" Dale asked.

"Who? And where do you know her from? Where do you know me from?" Masanori was surprised very much or only pretended the ignorance.

"I have no time for chat? She is in a great danger! She can even die and everything because of you!"

"I don't know what you are talking about man! Leave me alone!" The boy shouted trying to close the door and get rid of the intruder.

to get rid of the intruder.

"You called her in the middle of the night cheating her! Don't pretend innocent, I have everything recorded!" Arthur didn't give up.

"I know about everything!" He added. Masanori looked very confused. He didn't know how to behave and tears appeared in his eyes.

"You understand nothing! I had to do it, I had to... the cycle had to end, otherwise she didn't let me live normally! I couldn't bear it anymore!" The boy covered his face with hands.

"Ok. End of chatting! You're going with me and you'll show me where she is, understood?" The bald man said very loudly. He didn't hide big dislike which he felt to the boy.

"No, you understand nothing! I cannot go there!"

"We misunderstood ourselves .. , it's not a request!" Knight got the boy out of the flat and headed to the direction of a stairwell.

Rei, overcoming the headache and tens of voices screaming in her mind, got up. She pushed one of circus clowns. Her legs were like of cotton and everything around her whirled like on the merry-go-round. The music playing in girl's ears became faster and louder, mad, completely deprived of the rhythm. Rei thought that the end was coming and the virus against which the bald man had warned her found its way to her brain. She smiled at the thought that she had managed to survive the invasion from the outer space, from the past and the future but was defeated by a few circus freaks. She hoped that Arthur Dale Knight soon would avenge her and kill everyone from the bizarre group.

Dale and Masanori, sitting in bald man's jeep, approached the bus parked on the edge of forest. The man with a rooster head on his shoulders appeared on their road. He crowed trying to frighten them, but instead of it Dale increased the speed of the machine. Man-bird had to jump away into bushes in order to save himself from the fast death. Rei kneeled on the dirty earth and the group of bizarre figures gathered around her. Their faces moved in front of eyes of the girl like images on the film destroyed by the time and the music, laughers and voices in her head increased, driving her own thoughts.

"What is really going on?" She thought, when a river of tears started to flow in eyes. At the same moment the bald man's jeep appeared. Masanori looked around. He got scared seeing figures which were permanent residents of his nightmares and colorful, bright scenery of ruins caused that he had felt like bolting. Knight ran out of the car.

"Leave behind her alone, you sons of a bitch!" He shouted taking the weapon out.

"I said leave behind alone!" He aimed to one of fat clowns and pulled the trigger. The circus clown was pierced with the magic bullet and fell down dead. Arthur fired the second time, this time at the fire-eater. The wounded figure reeled and exploded with a bright flame moment later. Circus freaks terrified with the sudden death of the friend moved away from Rei. The part of them fled in a panic, hiding behind wooden buildings.

"What are you waiting for!" The bald man shouted to Masanori who was observing everything what happened around him without the smallest movement.

"Go to her! We must get out of here!" He screamed again. Masanori came up to the girl, helped her to get up and then led her to the car. Dale looked at the black-haired.

"Rei, what is happening to you?" Masanori asked. She didn't answer him, she even didn't look at his side hiding the eyes behind black hair.

"What happened to her!" Masanori turned to the hunter.

"The influence of the evil magic reached her brain. Perhaps we arrived a whit too late." The bald man replied watching how Rei was covering her face by hands as if she wanted to escape somewhere or to hide in front of the entire world. The Dale's man started the return route leaving bizarre lights and voices of the park of entertainment, revived by some very dark, ancient power, behind. Rei had dancing faces of bizarrely looking people before her very eyes and her mind was filled up by the cacophony of sounds amongst which her own name sounded repeatedly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

From dark clouds, slowly gliding all over the night sky, tiny raindrops started falling off. In the short time, the rain intensified rapidly and the drizzle became a real downpour. Fat drops hit the car body of the car and rivulets of water flowed down all windows of the vehicle. In spite of windscreen wipers, the visibility on the road was almost completely zero. The bald man seemed not to be upset by it, keeping the high speed. He wanted to walk away from the forest, in which Rei was attacked by physical manifestationbs of the ancient demon, as soon as possible. The girl was sitting hunched on the back seat, she avoided eyes of men and seemed to ignore any external stimulus. Masanori accompanied her, also being completely silent. He knew very well that he had been responsible for her physical and psychological poor condition and he was also afraid of the bald hunter of demons who had got him out of a safe place of his flat by a force and brought to the heart of the phenomenon which had frightened him for a few years of his life. Dale Arthur Knight spotted pitch-black silhouettes of industrial buildings made out of pipes supported by the complex system of bars and grates stretching on the night sky. The place was dead and abandoned, darkened by the blackness of the night and streams of water pouring from the sky. The bald man parked the car in the place, where the knocked over fence was rusting in a rainy mud. He ran out of the car looking all around. He swore something under the nose, because the rain was falling on his face and bald pate.

"Let us come in! We're so far from the city that I don't sense the hostile aura of this funfair!" He screamed pointing at the opened gate leading to the industrial area. When he didn't hear the reply after the minute, he came back to the car. Masanori stood by the opened door. He was drenched, he was looked at Knight with a fear. The bald man noticed that one hand of the boy had held Rei's hand. The girl was kneeling in a mud, her clothes were drenched and dirty from the wet soil. She was looking at her own knees and a cold wind was shaking her wet hair.

"What you are doing with her?" Dale screamed at the boy.

"She... doesn't want to move... I wanted her to go with us." Masanori said, simultaneously pulling Rei to himself. The black-haired girl didn't resist, she lost her balance and fell down straight into the puddle. Knight ran to the boy and slapped him in the face with all his might. Masanori staggered, and knocked over into the stream of the dirty earth which was formed by heavy rain.

"Can't you see that she cannot walk alone? Can't you see that she needs help?" The bald man screamed looking at the former friend of Rei sitting in the stinking stream. He came up to Rei to help her get up.

"Move and come with me! This building was residential lodgings for workers! We'll hide there and you'll find dry sheets or something similar. She cannot got sick. Did you understand?"

"Yes..." Masanori replied getting up from the fall into a mud. Everyone entered the building's interior. The bald man found some bigger room which was probably a day room or other place of social activity for occupants of the house in the past and Masanori started the search of something which could give the girl the warmth. Knight put Rei on the sofa, then sat down on a billiard table with the torn fabric. The acquaintance of Rei quickly found blankets in one of habitable rooms.

"Go away!" The bald man shouted at him as soon as he took sheets away from him. When the boy ignored him, he repeated his order.

"Go away from here. You hurt her enough! I don't want you to look at her!"

Masanori listened to him, vacating the room. He went in randomly chosen direction, somewhere to the interior of the building. In the same time Dale Knight took the wet shirt and trousers of Rei's body and covered the girl with the brown blanket. Black-haired woman seemed not to know what was happening to her, she followed every movement of the bald man like a rag doll. Her eyesight was empty, expressing no emotions, but a goose flesh appeared on her skin. Knight noticed that the girl had been shaking with a cold. It was a good sign, because her body still reacted to stimuli from the outside world. The man covered her with two extra layers of blankets. He didn't want to think what was going on in her mind, what awful visions she had to cope with, being destroyed by the magic virus. Dale knew that there had been no other rescue for her other than acting on the magic flame hidden inside her. If the fire had protected her from the evil magic, when she was a little girl, he believed that it could happen again. He had to make it to act, to free it from long sleep. He took the small, red stone out of his rucksack and moved it close to the face of the black-haired woman. He kept it motionless waiting for any reaction. At some point, the jewel started phosphorescing with warm glitter, and its temperature increased. Arthur didn't stop his action, ignoring an unpleasant feeling of the heat which turned up at his fingers. The face of Rei was lighted by the red glow and the girl very slowly opened her eyes. She seemed to notice the flame forming in the hand of the bald man, but her eyesight was still absent and indifferent to everything what was happening around her.

"I have no choice. I knew that I would have to part with him one day." He thought moving the stone closer to Rei's face. A dancing flame appeared inside the jewel and it extremely quickly jumped on the girl's skin to penetrate into the interior of her body. The bald man got up, he looked at his patient the last time and geared up to the serious conversation with her old acquaintance.

"I have to wait and hope that my theory was true." He said. He looked at the window in order to become convinced that the heavy rain was still falling.

"Now we will have a word." He said going to the black-haired boy.

The bald man went down the corridor to the factory neighboring with workers' hostel. Behind windows, which were in majority without panes, heavy rain was falling and unpleasantly sounding wind was blowing. The room was huge, full of the rusted equipment. The main object was dead production line stretching out through the entire length of the hall. The arms of out of order robots and other devices, from which cables of different kind protruded, hung above belt conveyors. There was a huge crane with the hanging rust-eaten hook above man's head. Arthur looked all around looking for the person for whom he came to the centre of the mechanical graveyard. He spotted him on the second end of the hall, looking at big window with broken panes. Immediately, he came closer to him.

"Now you'll tell me everything you know." He said to him.

"I'm not going to talk with a stranger who took me from my home in the middle of the night. I'm not going to be involved in some game with principles I don't understand." Masanori replied not facing the bald man. Dale took the gun out, reloaded it and directed at the back of boy's head.

"Is it a game for you? The girl can die at any time and you think only about yourself? You'll tell me everything what you know and if it won't appeal to me..." The man said clenching his teeth.

"I will kill you." He added with a voice deprived of all emotions. At the same moment, Masanori turned around and the light of the Moon, coming out through clouds, lighted tears flowing on his face.

"Who are you to judge me? Why do you care of her so much? You didn't know her yesterday and she thought that you had tracked her! How can you judge me after a few days spent in this place? You haven't lived in the nightmare for so many years, as I have!" The boy shouted out. The bald man lowered the weapon. He knew that he would not use it.

"Tell me how are you connected with everything what is happening around us. What is your and Rei's role? If you aren't cheating me, perhaps I will be able to help you to break free from this nightmare."

"The only mean of leaving the nightmare leads through the barrel of your weapon. I tried many times... but she didn't let me out. She didn't let me walk away from here." Masanori stopped talking to "Will she... will she survive?" He asked.

"I don't know, I did everything I could to help her. Now it all depends on her, if she is able to come back or if she wants."

"If I could somehow help her..."

"No. I told you a moment ago that all depended only on her now. You'll help her, if you tell me everything what you know about this demon." The bald man hid the weapon, leaning against belt conveyors. Black-haired man calmed down. He sat down on the wooden box, tired with all events and the sense of guilt.

"Ok. I don't know exactly what happened then. I don't remember it, perhaps because it was large shock or she didn't wish me to know too much and simply erased my memory. As a matter of fact its unimportant... I told the truth. I really knew Rei when we were small children. I played with her when she arrived in our small town."

"She doesn't remember you." The bald man announced.

"Perhaps her memory is even more messed up than mine. I don't know. I played then not only with Rei, but also with Mei, the granddaughter of the woman living close to our city. When we went to the funfair on day, nothing announced the tragedy which turned my life into the nightmare. I don't remember details, only images, sounds and feeling of the intense heat. A fire broke out, why I don't know, and we were cut off from the rest of people. I, Rei and Mei. I remember that I was afraid very much, I could not breathe, I thought that I would be burnt alive. I managed to escape, Rei and I we got out of the hot hell. Unfortunately Mei didn't have so much luck. The falling beam cut her off from the exit and she... she suffocated, or she burnt, I don't know, they didn't let us reach the body, which firefighters took out of the rubble a few hours later. The small town plunged into the mourning. Everyone was sad with death of the child, but her grandmother... her grandmother couldn't cope with that . Couple of years later she... brought her back... don't ask me in what way, but this happened. She resurrected her, or at least she thought she had done it. In reality she didn't brought Mei, but something terrible... something overfilled with an anger. One certain night I was getting back home, I came across the circus group dancing in the middle of the street and among them there was Mei. The woman, completely not resembling the child who died in a fire. She was changed, overfilled with hate. She wanted to take revenge on me, because it was me and of Rei who took her to the park of amusement that day. She harassed me when I was alone. She drove me mad and to suicide attempts but she didn't let me die. I tried to fight with her troupe, but all in vain. Later, she told me she had found a remedy to find Rei and get her here. She said that Rei was a special person and it wouldn't be able to take revenge on her so easily as on me. She said that if I meet with Rei and cast a spell on her, she'll leave me alone and let me leave this cursed city. I wasn't thinking about consequences, I wanted my nightmare to finally end."

"And so you infected Rei with magic virus?"

"I didn't have a clue. I only carried Mei orders out, I didn't know that she would want to kill Rei so quickly! I thought that she would be tormenting her as she did with me all those years. If I knew..."

"You would do exactly the same thing, because you're a bloody coward and an egoist!" Arthur cut him off in mid-sentence.

"She played with us like pawns in some damn game." He added after a moment.

"With us?" Masanori was surprised.

"I'm as guilty of what happened to Rei, as you. I met the envoy of that woman and he showed me the vision of you as children. I wanted to catch this bastard, therefore I got in touch with Rei through the dream in order to get her to this place. I believed that she would be the key to the riddle and defeating the demon. Actually I did exactly what that woman had wanted. I'm now not even a step closer to destroying the demon but the girl... we don't know if she be alive at the dawn." Feeling great anger, the bald man clenched fists.

"I'm going to return to the funfair. I'll find this woman, or whether she is now and I will kill her. At all costs. " He said preparing to leave.

"Wait. Rei will need you. She will never forgive me after what I did to her and I don't intend to ask her forgiveness, because I don't deserve it. But she'll need help, support. You must be by her when she will regain consciousness. " Masanori announced stopping the man.

"Am I supposed to sit around and wait?" The bald man replied.

"We'll wait together. We'll wait until she wakes up." The boy said.

Rei was lying on the old couch, covered with blankets and in the same position as the hunter of demons left her. She wasn't able to listen to sounds reaching her from the outside world, since voices of many non-existent persons filled her head. They were overlapping one another, trying to win the girl over and to force her to leave reality and embrace madness, which was unavoidably going to end her life. She was afraid to open her eyes, but in spite of it she could see moving colourful figures of strange beings. She wasn't able to escape, to hide from terrible yelling and the feerie of colours created by her own brain. She lost all hope, she wanted to sink in the quiet nothingness. At some point, she felt warm moving across her skin of the face, penetrating deep into her. She felt safer, like somebody from the outside bolstered up her courage for the fight against internal demons. The girl opened her eyes. She could see dancing spectral silhouettes of beings, which she had come across the previous night, laughing at her and whispering her name. She was afraid, her movements were hindered by the irrational fear. Beating warmth of internal flame caused that she was able to raise both hands overhead. At that very moment, dancing flames appeared around Rei's hand. Their glitter caused that apparitions became pale, they moved away from the mind of the girl. Their laughters and pointless rhymes weren't so horrible anymore. The girl felt that she would be able to overcome the magic destroying her, her ability to think came back. She concentrated on the flame which burnt around her body and she put all her efford into increasing its intensity. She felt that the fire had had his own awareness, the personality which had wanted to protect her from the fatal action of the magic virus. The girl to open her mind for it. She breathed deeply inviting it into the interior of her soul. In the same moment, the intense power and faith in the possibility of defeating apparitions tormenting her, appeared in her thoughts. Her mind flamed with a real fire, repelling shadows, hushing their unpleasant voices up. The intelligent being behind a virus realized that it wouldn't be able to control psyche of the girl, it decided to change tactics. This time it attacked her physical body. Rei could not catch the breath, her heart started beating fast and aching as if it was supposed to explode in a minute, she felt great pain also in the stomach. She rose from the couch, but all muscles in her body stabbed her as if somebody stuck thousands of small needles in them. The girl shouted, clenched fists so firmly, that she pushed nails into her palms. Drops of blood fell on the floor. She closed her eyes and ran outside without a second thought. The rain was as huge as earlier, when she had got off the car. Rei got soaked, but this time she had only an underwear on. In the same time, Dale and Masanori heard her shout. Frightened, they expected the worst. They ran to the room in which they had seen the girl for the last time. Unfortunately, only blankets lay on a couch.

"Where is she? " The boy asked.

"Look there! " The bald man replied pointing at the opened door. The dark sky behind windows suddenly lightened, became red from the glow of the fire in the surroundings.

"What's going on?" Masanori looked like hypnotized to red glitter beating from behind panes.

"Better let us walk there!" The bald man urged him, simultaneously taking the handgun out. When both men were outside, they were greeted by the beautiful and at the same time terrifying view. Rei stood in the distance of a few metres from the building, raising hands above her head. She was completely naked and her body silhouette was consumed by the intense, red flame. Its brilliance was so strong that Arthur and Masanori had to protect eyes covering them with hands. The fire became bigger and bigger, until at last it formed a large fiery bird. After a few minutes, which seemed to men to last the entire eternity, the fiery mirage dispersed and after disappear a short time. Only Rei remained, standing in streams of rain. The girl had her sailor senshi uniform on and the red jewel on her diadem gleamed with bright glitter.

"I am free." She said coming up to men. She looked at Masanori angrily.

"You lied to me! I almost died! I could hear everything in fever!" She shouted. She staggered and leaned against the wet wall of the grey building.

"Rei, come inside, you're weakened." Arthur announced.

"I united with the flame, as you said, but... I remember nothing." She whispered. Masanori wanted to say something to her, but she avoided the contact with his eyes on purpose. She staggered again.

"You must lie down. You must give the flame chance to heal your body to the state before infection." The bald man tried to persuade her for the rest.

"Okay, let us return." She answered with a forced smile. When the man and black-haired girl crossed doorstep, Masanori stayed outside, in streams of rain. Knight turned to him.

"What you are waiting for! You're with us until the end. You cannot escape from responsibility! " He shouted.

Rei went to the bed, immediatelly fell asleep and had slept for a few hours. Outside the rain stopped and the blackness of night slowly gave in to the brightness of the morning. Rei was still dressed as Sailor Mars, she felt much better. Masanori didn't try to approach her and Arthur was sitting by her bed.

"Rei, How are you feeling? " He asked.

"Okay, I'm also strangely relaxed and calmed as if I found some missing part of me."

"Maybe that's ecactly what happened. The larger spark of the flame came back where it belongs."

"I'll start believe in your Golden Millennium." The girl sat down on the bed.

"Do you want to stay in such a form? You should conserve the energy, we don't know who or what can attack us now." The bald man said pointing at black-haired girl's sailor fuku.

"I don't have a choice. My pants burnt in the night." Rei replied. Knight laughed.

"Stop it. It isn't funny at all!"

" Okay, I know. Masanori!" Dale shouted at the boy.

"Yes?"

"Has she ever appeared in the day? Or was a danger to somebody?"

"No, she was able to influence my psyche, but she has never appeared in the day personally."

"Good. We can have a peace for a moment. We'll returned to a hotel for your things. You'll change and take ofuda. They can be useful to us where we'll go." He said to Rei.

"Where?"

"Masanori told me who was responsible for attacks on you. We know where we must start our search."

"Masanori? Have you believed him? Perhaps he will lead us into the trap again!" The girl didn't even tried to look at the boy.

"Things are not always as they appear to be." The bald man replied.

"Exactly. Somebody says that he's your childhood friend, you go with him to the coffee, to the river and then he gives you to bloody circus freaks! I don't believe in a single one of his words!"

"Rei, you'll settle it with him, when we're safe. At the moment, we all are in a grave danger and we must stick together, do you understand?"

"Yeah well... what did you learn from him?" Rei asked, ignoring the boy again.

"Do you remember those fragments of newspapers in the house of the older woman? This girl who seemed familiar to you, Mei... you really knew her, you played with her in the childhood. One day, the accident happedned in the funfair, you and Masanori escaped from it in one piece, but Mei didn't have such luck. She died."

"I don't have a clue whom you're talking about, but don't stop."

"Her grandmother, the woman who you probably met that night, brought her back to the land living in some dark, forbidden way. She came back, but changed, as the demon of the revenge who used Masanori, but also me in order to get you to this city. She feels hatred towards you, she thinks that she died because of you. She wants to take revenge and she won't sit down until she kills you."

"Nice, somebody who I don't remember, wants to kill me."

"Rei, when you united with the Flame and you cleaned the virus off the body, couldn't you see something from the past, some thing that could help us?"

"No, I said that I didn't know whom Mei was, or what happened many years ago, but something changed inside me."

"Yes?" The bald man was interested.

"When the flame penetrated into my body, I felt like some emptiness in me was filled. I don't know why, maybe because I got well, but I have a purer mind, I can think more easily." The girl shared her observations with him.

"Excellent, perhaps your memory will come back with time."

"I'd like it. I would prefer to know whom I'm going to fight with and why."

The bald man rose from the stool, he looked at Rei and the boy standing in the distance. He smiled cleaning his black glasses.

"I'll leave now and you have to reach an agreement with each other. You have the time up to the moment when the Sun rises beyond the horizon." Dale announced pointingat the pane behind which one could see the grey sky, the last breath of the dying night. He left the room banging the door. The girl looked around noticing the decor of the room, old wardrobes and chairs and the billiard table with the torn up cloth standing in the middle of the room. She was silent, not knowing what to say as well as not wanting to talk with somebody who had entirely lost her trust. Masanori became impatient with the silence and decided to speak first.

"I'm not going to say anything which could justify my behaviour. I'm going out. Let that guy think that we were reconciled and will be satisfied, if it is so important to him. We won't see each other again, goodbye." The boy came up to the door, grabbed the door handle and refrained as if he waited for some reaction of his friend.

" What are you waiting for?" Rei asked.

"Don't you want to know why? Why did I send you straight into the embrace of the demon? Why did I help cast a spell?"

"Whatever the reason was, it won't change the fact that you did it to me. I don't need to know reasons. Real friend, as you said about yourself, would never agree on something like that, even if he would lose something."

"Every night looked the same for me, never-ending psychological nightmare with the participation of this monster and her bizarre helpers. Don't you think that I didn't try to be through with it? I wanted to destroy her, to destroy myself, but she didn't let me. If I had any choice... I would kill myself with the magic virus."

"You had a choice, you could live in the nightmare or tell me about everything and ask me for help. As a matter of fact I tried to get to know something from you, when I noticed that strange things were happening in this city. A bit of the frankness and perhaps we would manage to do something, defeat her and maybe escape from this place. You chose an easy ride which freed you from nothing and deprived you of a friend. If your experiences were at least a bit similar to what I passed through in today's night, then I can understand your decision. But I won't forgive you so easily."

"Rei, we told ourselves everything what we had to the say. I'll go to Arthur Knight. The sun is shining through the window, which means we can come back." The boy opened the door slightly. Rei got up and came up to him.

"Masanori, it would be much better if our friendship ended after our walk along the river. I would have something to remember." She said. The bald hunter of demons appeared in the doorway.

"Everything's settled?" He asked. Not waiting for the response, he continued.

"We must return to the hotel. We must rest and go to the home of older woman. Rei, take your ofuda and you Masanori... don't try to escape from the responsibility."

Rei, after returning to the hotel, changed her clothes into dry and clean ones, took the rucksack full of accessories for the fight against demons and after a short moment of peace decided to visit the room of her acquaintance. Dale was surprised seeing her in the door, but he was satisfied, because the girl was ready for the confrontation with her past and the difficult opponent.

"Why aren't you resting? You experienced a lot the last night."

"I'm having itchy feet. I'm feeling the power stimulated and full of the energy, I gained new power which enhanced me."

"Sit down." The bald man said to her, and then he also sat down on the sofa.

"Did something more change?" He asked.

"Yes... I'm not certain, because I didn't try it, and I'm afraid to do it... but I'm probably able to control flames even without the transformation. I'm convinced, that if I thought about the flame it would appear for my call."

"Try to do it. You'll never know if you don't see it with your own eyes."

"And if something happens? If I set fire in the hotel or I hurt you?"

"Nothing will happen. Just think about something small, not being able to hurt anybody, imagine some shape." The bald man offered the girl. Rei stopped talking, focusing her thoughts, she tried to get in touch with the flame. At some moment, a miniature ball of the whirling fire appeared in her opened hand. Its red glitter fell on brightly white walls of the hotel accommodation.

"It really works!" The girl was glad. She observed the strange globe of flames.

"You are far more better than me. I can see, that you're a rightful owner of the Martian flame. " Knight replied looking at Rei gladly.

"Are you able to do it?"

"I was able, I gave you the flame which I learn to master many years ago."

"You lost something precious..."

"It's ok. It saved your life besides it came back to its real house."

"Arthur, tell me what do you know about the Golden Millennium? What it was, why did it fall down? Are all my friends using abilities originating in those times?" Rei convinced that the man didn't cheat her, wanted to learn from him as much as she can.

"To tell you the truth, everything which I knew, came from dreams I had occasionally thanks to the flame living in my body. I know, that something like that existed, but I know no meaningful details, I'm sorry. But let us already chat no longer because it's a waste of time. We have a demon to kill!"

Dale rose from the couch, put the sunglasses on and took the handgun lying on a bedside table.

"I'll finally learn what it all means. And I won't let myself to be deceived as before."

"Okay, that's good that you're vigilant Rei, but don't treat that boy so coldly. I know that he did wrong, but people can do terrible things under the influence of the powers of darkness."

"I'll try." The girl answered unwillingly.

In the late afternoon, two men and one woman met in front of the breaking down house of the older woman, Mei's grandmother. The weather was worse than in previous days, the sky was covered with grey clouds, but nothing announced coming of violent downpour like at the night.

"Are we entering? " The girl asked.

"Yes. Let us already finish it once and for all." The bald man replied.

"I thought like you, many times... but then matters took a turn for the worse for me."

"You didn't have us with you." The bald man replied.

"Remember about one thing, if you try to betray Rei again, I will kill you." He added gladly.

"When she wins, I won't be such a lucky one." Masanori replied. The girl moved in the direction of the door, because an exchange of words between men made her impatient. Knight overtook her and taking the handgun out, first crossed the doorstep of the old hovel. The interior was the same dead and quiet like the day before, dust lied on furniture, the floor and walls.

"I don't like this place." Masanori said.

"We're going to the room in which the transformation took place." The bald man replied. They found the aforementioned room with strange, mysterious drawn signs to for floor. Rei took her ofuda out. She refrained with using them, since she found something interesting in signs, shapes and symbols seen on dusty boards.

"Arthur, you said that the woman had brought her granddaughter back from the grave. In that case, why symbols on the floor mean the transformation? You told me yesterday."

"I would like to know it Rei. Perhaps something stranger than I was able to depict happened here, or your friend told us some rubbish." The bald man replied looking at Masanori.

"No! I heard about her return from her so many times I could quote her here for you!" The boy defended himself.

"Well. Rei, Could you use your spells?"

"I waited for it!" Black-haired girl smiled widely. She took sheets with painted ideograms in black ink out and whispering the spell she put them on walls and the floor, in the vicinity of key elements of magic symbols. No sound effects neither visuals accompanied her moves. Masanori seemed disappointed, but actually breathed a sigh of relief.

"Did nothing happen?" The bald man asked the girl.

"I don't know... wait." Rei hushed him. She closed her eyes trying to empathize with the atmosphere of the place, to catch all of the smallest changes which could provide her information that spells brought her the expected effect.

"Somebody appeared... or rather something." The black-haired woman announced.

"Where?" Masanori was surprised.

"Not here, somewhere else in home..." Rei replied.

"Come with me!" She added. Knight and Masanori went in direction which Rei showed then. After a few seconds they reached the small room, the one in which there were cuttings from newspapers about the tragedy in the circus, Mei's photograph and the breaking down. Everyone stood up like bricked in. The older woman was sitting on the bed. She held the doll in her lap looking in her dead, glassy eyes.

"What's this?" Masanori shouted terrified. The bald man hushed him up. The old lady stroked the doll's hair. When she noticed that there were other people apart from her in the room, she turned to their side, simultaneously hugging the dummy.

"Mei-chan, friends came to you. Say hello politely." The spectral woman replied. She was silent for a moment and then continued.

"No Mei-chan, you are not allowed to go out alone. We don't know them well, they can rude friends."

"These are very rude friends!" The old person said angrily.

"Rei, prepare." The bald man warned.

"Mei-chan won't be playing with somebody as you!" The apparition shouted throwing the doll towards Rei and men. The toy opened its dead eyes and a laughter of a little girl got out of its mouth. Her wooden hands came near Rei's face. Dale was very fast, the doll was struck by him. Unfortunately, when the toy fell on the floor, it bounced back from it and moved, this time in the direction of the bald hunter of demons. Rei thought about her new abilities and a fiery ball formed in her hand. The girl hurled it at the doll, catching it in an explosion. When smoking piece of woods fell on the floor, a terrifying shout of the child sounded all around.

"What did you do to my small Mei-chan! What did you do with her monsters!" The spectral woman looked at charred wood with a terror. She buried her face in her hands and started crying. The shock caused that the woman concentrated on her own pain, temporarily stopped defending the place of her transformation and the first contact with demonic power.

"What is happening here?" Masanori asked rhetorically again.

"I know what I must do!" Rei told, thinking aloud.

"Yes?" The bald man was surprised with her reaction.

"When my fire touched this doll, I understood. I know how way I can recover my memory! I know what happened here!" The girl was excited.

"Those patterns on the floor. They indeed concern the transformation, but temporary! She tried to connect the past with the future, to take somebody out of distant times rather than the place, she failed. The transformation was needed, in order to became immaterial and move backwards along the temporal dimension!"

"It's astonishing how easily you're using the knowledge of the flame, girl." Dale commented on the monologue of black-haired woman.

"I must do exactly the same, I must move my awareness back in the time to the moment in which that tragedy took place! However I will need somebody who remembers those events better so that he will be my navigator." Rei looked at Masanori.

"You'll go with me, otherwise I'll fail and I can get lost in the stream of the time."

"What? Am I supposed to go through it again?" The boy got scared.

"It's a unique chance for the confrontation with the demon and freeing your life. Are you such a coward to throw it all away?"

"No, I'll go with you. What am I supposed to do?"

"Let us come back to that room. I'll use the Martian flame to open the door to the time stream."

"And what am I supposed to do?" The bald man asked.

"Guard this place and don't let anybody break into the gate. It must remain intact before I come back. Otherwise, my awareness cease to exist or get forever lost in streams of the space-time continuum."

"I won't disappoint you." Arthur Knight replied.

Rei watched the mysterious symbols of the pattern drawn on the floor as if she read some mysterious meaning which only she could understand, since her mind was connected with the incomprehensible intellect or awareness of the Martian flame. At some point, she squinted her eyes, as if she expected the very bright lighting. Two briskly red glimmers appeared in her hand and she throw them on the floor. To everyone's surprise, the fire didn't light wood and instead it situated on all lines forming the symbol, as if they were made of some flammable material. After a few minutes flames united in one, forming something in the shape of the gate. Rei looked at Masanori.

"Give me a hand, we don't have a lot of time." She said.

"What do you want to do?" The boy wasn't enthusiastic about anything what Rei was going to ask him to do.

"Do not be afraid, trust me. Take my hand, because we must cross the gate together!"

"Are we going straight into the fire?"

"Don't chat and give me a hand. We must go deep into our past."

Masanori unwillingly raised the hand and reached the girl.

"Trust me." Rei told once again. She entered, with the boy, into the portal. They both disappeared in it leaving the hunter of demons alone in the haunted house.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Rei and Masanori was walking along a very bizarre corridor. Walls made out of whirling flames surrounded them and fiery tongues of various shape and sizes grew out of the floor. The passage seemed to be going to infinity, its every meter looked the same and people wandering by it thought that they had been frozen in one place. They both lost perception of the reality of their own consciousness, their eyes registered only a red fire of the world they were in and their other senses were entirely useless. Their proprioception seemed to be totally out of control, they didn't feel their own bodies, they didn't know whether they were going through the corridor themselves or perhaps they were observing somebody else through the curtain of flames. Every step brought them closer to the travel's destination, every step was directed opposite to the temporary stream, every movement carried them over backwards in time: minutes, hours, days, months and years. Their physical bodies or perhaps their mental representations also changed in that unusual place. Their hands and legs shrank, silhouettes started assuming younger shape and hair of the girl grew backwards, shortening its length. The magic of the corridor caused that their clothes had also shrunk in order to cover their more and more children like bodies. After the passage of time, seeming to be almost infinitely long, fiery whirlpool started slowly losing its intensity. They could use their senses and observe the world surrounding them. They were small children again standing in the middle of the urban square feeling the Sun's heat and crowds of tourists walked around them. Water gushing out from the nearby fountain splashed their faces with cold drops and the shadow of the growing tree provided shelter from the heat. Rei could not speak or contact Masanori in some other way and similarly he could not establish contact with her. They both realized the nature of the spell. Their awareness moved backwards in time of their childhood so that they could exactly see what had happened in the day, when they had freed the demon, but they were only bystanders of those events. They could see the world with eyes of their younger counterparts, but they could not influence them in any way. They had to wait patiently for the course of events and learn from them the truth, needed for the victory over the demon. They heard someone's voice and saw their friend with golden hair, Mei from the neighborhood. They were supposed to go to the funfair with her.

At the same time, Arthur Knight watched over the magic circle, the return gate for the girl and the boy. He clasped the handgun tightly, sensing approaching danger. He went to the window in order to see whether his premonitions had justifications in facts. After a few minutes of fixing his eyes on the total darkness stretching out in front of the house, he realized that he wasn't wrong. He spotted figures of some strange persons coming near. Their behavior, creeping, betrayed that they hadn't been tourists passing or locals coming back from the night-time party.

"Damn it!" The man said stepping down from the view.

"Fortunately, these are only pawns rather than the chief actress of this damn show." He added trying to feel more comfortable. He hoped that magic seal which he had used on the door and other entrances to the interior of the house will keep the inflow of unwanted guests.

"Rei, Masanori... wherever you are... better hurry up or else it won't be so good here."

Rei and her two friedns went along the road towards the longed-for funfair. The path looked totally different than many years later, was nice looking, not-overgrown by weeds and trees' branches. People passed by them, the entire families with color balloons afloat above their heads going to the funfair or coming back from it. Everyone were happy and nothing heralded the tragedy which was supposed to take place that day. Gates of the funfair, looking huge from a perspective of small children and colorful clown inviting them play on various attractions offered by the place of the entertainment, greeted them. Mei quickly took the initiative in the group and indicated places which she wanted to visit with her friends. There were many places on the list of children, for example the merry-go-round with the music, which Rei had remembered from her dream, the hall of mirrors, the shooting range and the large roller coaster. When the night came and lightings on attractions gleamed like fairy lights, the three of friends came off into the most distant part of the funfair, where the large red building stood. There was a colorful sign with letters on the yellow star - Mister Incredible and his House of Marvels. Interested with the advertisement, they looked into the interior. The place was dark and some gloomy melody interrupted by distant children's laughter came from hidden loudspeakers. Rei, Mei and Masanori looked all around, feeling anxiety growing in their hearts. The decor of the room would frighten even an adult, but it was just terrifying for children. Strange stage props loomed into the view from the darkness: stuffed dog with two heads, black-white photographs portraying freaks such as the fat bearded lady or the dancer with three legs, large jars with formalin which housed deformed fetuses. All objects were a fraud, the mixture of photomontage and wax sculptures, but they all fulfilled their objective very well. Curiosities frightened young guests of the palace. The strange case decorated with the image of a face twisted in a very peculiar grimace riveted the attention of the entire threesome. Mei heard some voice in her head, something which was calling her, inviting her to go up closer, look at the case... the girl wasn't able to oppose growing temptation, she moved away from friends and went in the direction of the object. Masanori and Rei were soon interested with her sudden change of behavior. Unexpectedly, Mei turned around. simultaneously looking into the eyes of the black-haired girl. Her eyes were cold, full of fury and sorrow.

"Mei-chan, what's going on?" Masanori asked.

"Mei-chan why aren't you answering? If you are afraid we can leave from here." He added.

"Let us walk from here. It was a stupid idea to come here." Rei told. The blonde touched her arms.

"Rei-chan... It is the most interesting place in the entire funfair. It's good that we have came here." announced smiling ominously.

"Mei-chan...don't it hurts me." Rei felt her cold and strong hug not resembling the touch of a small child.

"You have something I need very much... something which will let me become known in this world again. I feel in you the piece of the power which took my body away from me."

"Mei-chan? What are you talking about? It isn't funny at all!"

Suddenly a bright circle with magic symbols whirling around its circumference appeared behind the back of the girl with blue eyes. A spectral hand loomed from the middle of the strange phenomenon. Rei and Masanori moved closer to each other, they were too terrified to escape or act in any other way.

"Somebody is trying to connect what was with what is supposed to come? Does somebody want to open the forbidden doorway proceeding to new opportunities? The better chance won't repeat itself." Mei ran up to Rei and pushed her towards the materializing spell. In the same moment the enormous fireball fired from the body of the black-haired girl, destroyed the opening portal and then hit the case with the golden mask. The object immediately caught fire and flames very quickly spread over all the place cutting children off doorway. Mind Rei, its two instances, the small girl's and the young woman's were poured over with visions developing in red tongues eating wooden building.

Arthur Knight stood in the middle of the room listening closely to dark sounds of the beings hitting doors and windows, trying to tear over the wood and glass as well as magic barriers created by the bald man. He knew that the protection wouldn't keep them for long, because circus freaks were too pervaded with the ancient evil of the demon and hate of his newest advocate. He was sure that soon he was going to have one of the most serious fights of his life. When he looked out of the window, he observed strange purple-blue coloring of the night sky. He watched it more carefully noticing that waves of the light moved towards the city and their source was most probably in forest's ruins of the funfair. He could also see other silhouettes of people going in the direction of the house. He realized that the magic of the demon had started having an influence on residents much more stronger than ever before turning them into passive dummies obedient to the will of their new master.

"You cowardly slut... you're using innocent instead of coming here alone". He said alone to himself.

"When Rei comes back, if she comes back... we will defeat you once and for all."

Rei was surrounded by raging flames, her senses went mad again and she wasn't able to distinguish her personality from the awareness of her own counterpart from many years before. She had to obey visions attacking her mind from all possible temporal and spatial directions. She could see a city, distant from her in the space and the time, full of houses and roads on which people and carts drawn by horses travelled. She could see a mysterious man covering himself with a black material, flashing by in the darkness of dirty streets in the direction known only to himself. She watched the world through his eyes, seeing an interior plunged into a darkness and strange people gathered by him in one place, under one roof. Some of them were short men, others were tall and towering above the rest. The woman with three legs was sitting in the corner and nearby there was very obese lady with facial hair like on the adult man's face. There were many other people in the room, with unusual, sometimes bizarre appearance given them by the nature. The door leading to the room opened and a tall man with persons keeping him company came inside. His eyesight was ruthless and he had malevolent intentions towards the company hiding in the shadow. In one hand he kept a crucifix and in the second one a ball of the pulsating fire. Huge tongues of flames hit from every side, engulfing bodies of everyone around until at last they reached the man dressed in black. Rei closed her eyes not being able to look at bodies melting from the heat. The man who she saw at the beginning of the vision appeared before her eyes.

"I had been living in peace for many years... my travelling circus gave the refuge to everyone who could not find the place in the society because of his or her difference. Everything was all right until they found out about me and accused me of the black magic. The Inquisitor who came after me accused me that, using the help of the devil, I had changed bodies of these people, I had created monsters so that they could serve my dark affair. He destroyed me that night... burnt my house, my entire belongings and all my friends... at the end his flame consumed my body, but then an unexpected thing happened... it wasn't an ordinary fire... it was something preternatural, having an awareness and a memory about a past times. Then I thought that it had originated in the deepest infernal circles. My pain and hate united with his cosmic mind and then I was born anew. Although my body was lost, my mind survived in the sentient fire and I became a demon because only a hate was left to me. I was defeated... I was defeated many times and I made a success to come back many times in order to have my revenge on everyone who contributed to my death. Through hundreds of years, my fire died down not-fueled with new hate it started to dissolve into the oblivion. Until the moment, when I met you, girl. You had the same entity, which granted me a new form, in your body, you had a fire in yourself that I needed so much. The gate that was opened backwards in the time let me free myself and rouse flames put to sleep in your body. I still needed a hate for my return. Therefore I destroyed the body of that girl and I filled her mind with a hate to you and your friend. I am the owner of the circus unjustly accused of goblets and sentenced to death, but I am also Mei, the woman who could not become adult because of her childhood friends. When you come back to your times, Mei will destroy you and she will capture such a power that cleaning the world of descendants of people who took everything from me will become as easy as an pie. Goodbye, black haired woman and see you in the future."

She interrupted the yard noticing the contact with the demon raging around flames. She felt that somebody had dragged her by the hand and realized that he had been it is Masanori.

"Rei-chan, escape! " The boy shouted and at the same time one of walls collapsed, cutting two children off from their friend with golden hair forever. After a moment, Rei and Masanori were back in the fiery tunnel again which carried their awareness to bodies left in the future.

The door of the house was torn out from hinges and the magic barrier broke like a soap bubble. The dark room was flooded by strange people from Mei's the new queen of the circus, procession. The man with cock's head led the congregation, he crowed insanely seeing the figure of the bald hunter of demons hiding in the dark. He hated the man and wanted to settle a score with him, because Dale almost run him over by his car. The fat clown and the bearded woman rolled out right after him. Knight fired towards the circus clown killing him and later he tried to aim at the fat old lady, but the hairy giant very quickly disarmed him with one blow of the large paw. The monstrosity was much stronger than ordinary man, therefore he knocked the man down without a problem.

"I'll..." The bald man said, trying to reach for the weapon. Unfortunately, a short man with bald head ran up to it, picked it up and directed at the face of the hunter. He laughed with the children's voice putting the gun straight at his head.

"Leave him alone!" Rei appeared in the doorway of the room with the large magic circle. She came back from her travel into the past and was ready for the last fight against her old friend. Masanori stood of few strides behind her. He looked at people being the fulfillment of his long-term nightmares with an terror. The black-haired girl created a ball of fire in her hand and hurled it into the shaggy monster. The wild beast was caught in flames and her gloomy shouts frightened the short man, the cock and the great woman. Rei threw another spell which hit the floor raising a barrier which was not penetrable for her opponents.

"You could hurry a bit up. This little shrimp had terribly bad breath." Arthur said getting up off the floor. Rei smiled to him.

"I like to appear at the last moment." She announced.

"Now let us come back to the room of transformations." She added.

"Did you found something about pasts?"

"Yes, but we have no time for talks."

"Let's better look what is happening behind the window." Masanori paid attention to the unusual atmospheric occurrence. The night happened to be brighter and green stripes resembling mix between clouds with the aurora were moving across the sky.

"It's bad , it has begun." The girl announced.

"What has begun?" The bald man asked.

"His... or her expansion beyond this damn circus. This demon, whom you talked about, took control of Mei, she became him. Fueled with the hate to me and Masanori as well as the energy of the flame... she or he... it's unimportant... he wants to teach the entire world a lesson."

"You will have to tell me everything when it ends."

"If it ends..."

"Aren't you going to fight with her? After all now you got rid of the magic virus and you recovered the power over the flame..."

"I won't win against her... because she... she controls my flame, it revived her. The spell of connecting the future with the past, the gate which was opened by Mei's grandmother became a passage by which the demon could turn up in this world again... and my fire... he got it out of me when I was a little girl... and the hate which he instilled in the disembodied Mei's soul gave him the power. Until the gate is open I cannot stand up to Mei... she will defeat me without a problem. The gate links with the past and the fire from the inner self of my childhood's counterpart."

"And probably not only with it, because you said yourself that the flame exists independently from time and spaces. Until this connection is broken, his influence will be expanding."

"I hate temporary paradoxes." The bald man spoke banging his fist on the wall.

"What are we waiting for, let us destroy this gate." Masanori said looking at figures of freaks dancing behind the barrier of the fire as well as under windows of the house.

"It's not that simple. We cannot stop the spell. Nobody can apart from its author. We could kill her, but there's one little problem. She no longer lives and thanks to the energy she still can watch over the gate in her wraithlike form."

Rei thought deeply. She remembered her earlier encounter with the older woman, her hospitality for the traveler drenched with the rain.

"It's possible to communicate with her. I'll go to her and try to convince her to close her doorway. It's the our only chance for the victory."

Rei was standing in the doorway to the children's room trying to find enough strength for making the next step. She looked at the apparition of the older woman sitting on the bed covered with dust and webs, keeping remnants of the destroyed doll in its hands. The apparition tried to piece the doll together, to fix it the way she once tried to restore her granddaughter to life. The black-haired girl looked around stopping her on the wall colored by the green glow shining into the interior through panes daubed with dust on. The older woman sensed her presence, but this time she didn't show the hostility for her.

"You are a friend of my Mei-chan? You came to play with her? It's late, perhaps you should get back home?" She asked. Rei moved closer to her, sensing that this time she was not a danger to her.

" I am... or rather I was a friend of Mei-chan..." She started the conversation.

"Did you two quarrel? " The surprised old lady asked.

"No, nothing of the kind... something completely different happened. Look at me. I'm not a child, I'm adult woman." Rei told smiling.

" I knew Mei, but a lot of time passed, you should remember, I ask you..."

"Why are you talking such nonsense, you are small child!" The apparition started demonstrating the first signs of aggression.

"Look at me now! Remember everything!" Rei was angry. The woman looked at her and then released remains of the doll which fell on the floor.

"You aren't small... and Mei isn't..."

"Yes, a terrible tragedy happened and Mei lost her life. You tried to turn change the past, but you did something very bad... you used the knowledge no man should posses."

" I..." The old lady fell into a pensive mood and after a moment she burst in tears.

" I remember everything... I wanted to get Mei-chan back. I wanted Mei-chan to be with me again..."

"Your spells worked, but not in the way you wanted. Instead of Mei, you called something terrible, the power which used the body of your granddaughter and enslaved her, even after her death. And now, this being is threatening everything!"

The woman didn't know how to behave. Memories flowed into her mind and she slowly understood how disastrous consequences her act brought.

"Did Mei-chan... did she come back?"

"Her physical body came back... but she isn't the same Mei that you remember. It's a demon risen from hate to the entire world. Mei is enslaved, she hasn't got her own will, she is a puppet in hands of evil powers. Please look out of the window. This glow, people around our house and in the distance, that's all effects of action of the demon holding Mei prisoner! He is threatening us... but nobody of us is able to fight with him, he is now too powerful because he's using the magic created by the gate!"

"I don't want Mei to suffer... if I knew that it all would become something like that I would let her pass away... I would let her fall asleep forever..." The old lady cried.

"There is still a chance to help her and actually only you can help her."

" In what way? I will do everything what you tell me, if only my Mei stops suffering."

"You must close the gate. Disconnect the demon from the past times. The flame must cut off from him."

The old person turned to the window and thought for a moment. Automatic thoughts which filled her head up were disappearing giving a room for real memories from the times before performing the transformation. All moments she spent which with her granddaughter, all joys and sorrows which she shared with her came to her mind. Rei observed green glow above the forest with an anxiety. She knew that everything had depended on the final decision of the apparition of the girl's grandmother.

"Well. I'll do it. But you must promise me something, Rei." The woman spoke at last.

"Yes?"

"You must promise me, that if I do it, you will do everything in your power to give Mei-chan a peace so that she could finally fall asleep."

"I swear." Rei answered without a second thought.

The black-haired girl and the apparition of the woman were in a room with the shining magic symbols on the floor. Masanori and Arthur y waited for her there, looking either at the window or at minions of the demon trying to pass through the curtain of magic flames.

"She agreed to close the gate. We're ready." Rei announced.

"Turn away." The older woman said. She moved to the center of the drawn circle spreading her hands out. Symbols around the pictogram started changing their color to red, one after another, the old lady typed out some code compound of them. Soon, the all symbol started disappearing, similarly to the figure of Mei's grandmother. The apparition became more and more transparent, it waved, lost her materialness and the contact with physical world. For the last time, she smiled up to Rei.

"Goodbye Rei-chan and remember about what you promised me. Help my granddaughter to find the eternal peace."

"I won't forget about this promise... " Rei whispered quietly.

The apparition vanished in the black of night. For a moment only a silence, disturbed by the crack of flames of the magic barrier and dying away voices of circus performers standing on the other side, was in the room. Thoughts of the girl were stopped by her bald acquaintance.

"Rei, a time for the reveries will come when it all ends. There is a huge danger awaiting for us. We must complete what we have started." Rei didn't move from the place, her face was hidden in the darkness of the room.

"I know about it... I cannot simply be reconciled how something like that could happen. I cannot accept that the life of one little girl was stopped in such a pointless way. And I had my participation in this."

"Don't agonize over it. You were a child then, you didn't know what power you carried. You were the same victim as Mei, as her grandmother, as Masanori..."

"But if my consciousness didn't move backwards in the time maybe..."

"Rei, stop thinking about it! In time travels you are never able to know certainly what is effect and what is cause. Thinking about it won't help you must have a fresh mind when you want to confront what is ahead of you." Arthur shouted at the girl.

"And now I will have to kill Mei... once again. This time being truly conscious of this."

"Rei, we must act now. If you retreat now, somebody can suffer harm because of it. Somebody can go through what I had experience through all years because of that!" Masanori cut in on the conversation.

"Be strong. We will help you." The bald man added. The black-haired girl felt more confident.

"Well. Let us do it and let this nightmare finally end."

Rei caused that the barrier from flames had cease to exist with one move of the hand as quickly as he had created it earlier. As it turned out, the gang of oddities managed to escape, not leaving the smallest trace after itself. The entire threesome vacated the dark room and went outside. Each of them felt relief being outside the walls saturated with the tragedy and touched by the black magic. The Moon was shining above their heads and stars were twinkling, the sky had a midnight, natural color and a even the trace of the portentous glow didn't remain. Rei looked around noticing unconscious people lying and lawns and road.

"What did happen here?" She asked.

"They live, but they are unconscious." Masanori replied checking the pulse of one of city dwellers.

"They were enslaved by the increasing power of the demon, but closing the gateway caused to severe their connection with them. The shock caused that they had lost consciousness but I think they should wake up in the morning." Arthur said.

"And all these circus performers? Did they also disappear? Who were they actually?" Masanori asked.

"Look there, you have your reply there." Knight pointed his finger at the first trees of nearby forest. As it turned out, the gang recalled by the black-haired boy hid there from their eyesight. At some moment, four short men with small, shaven off bald heads appeared on the street. Each of them held burning torch. Figures stood in pairs on the opposite sides of the road creating some kind of invisible gate, strange passage symbolically inviting to other reality. The rest of persons escaped. They probably returned to the place of their settling, the abandoned funfair.

"What are they doing?" Masanori asked.

" I don't like it." He added.

"They are inviting us..." The hunter announced.

"She is inviting us, she wants to meet with me and to fight with me once and for all."

"Will you accept her invitation?"

"Yes, but not as Rei Hino. I will square up to her as Sailor Mars, turn away from me." She instructed her friends.

" Mars Star Power, Make Up!" She shouted and her body was engulfed by the living, magic flame. Her clothes were changed into Sailor Mars dress. Rei felt differently than during all her previous transformations. She felt stronger, more self-confident, she understood her abilities much more than ever before.

"It's remarkable... now I know... I can use so many different spells... earlier I never felt such a power in myself!"

"Rei, we probably should follow them." Arthur announced pointing at short men carrying burning wooden sticks walking away.

" I must stand up to Mei, because I promised something to her grandmother. I have no choice. But you can still retreat."

"I'm a hunter, killing demons is my duty. Apart from that, perhaps you will need my help again? I've already rescued you three times!" The bald man replied.

"She destroyed so many mine years. Before I would run a mile, but after our shared hike in the past, I am not afraid anymore. I'm ready to stand up opposite her and to wipe the mocking smile off her face. I'm with you."

" If we've decided there is no need to wait anymore. Let us walk." The girl finished the conversation.

Meanwhile, the abandoned funfair revived again. Lights shone on the merry-go-rounds and other attractions and laughter coming from non-existent children's throats spread all around. Bizarre circus performers stood around the square of the funfair holding each other hands and reciting some pointless counting-out rhyme, the same as the one which they were murmuring while walking under the hotel window in the night-time procession. The woman in the long, red dress with a golden hair stood in the very center of the circle. She looked at her companions of the curse smiling.

"Rei-chan, we will finally square up with each other. I will finally have a chance to take my revenge. I will fight with you, even now when the power of my benefactor is slowly starting to disappear. And I promise you, that I won't sit down until one of us becomes steaming dust.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The woman with golden hair stood in the centre of living circle formed by strange figures, coming from some ghostly circus gang of oddities. Colorfully dressed people moved rhythmically around their queen reciting the rhyme, the only memory from Mei's childhood which was not blinded by irrational hate for two friends, fueled by tempting of the centuries-old evil. The woman sensed that people hated by her approached her kingdom with the intention of destroying her. Some stranger was with them, somebody whom she personally didn't know, but it didn't make any difference for her. She was sure that she would be able to defeat his easily. Lamps on attractions of the funfair shined with colorful lightings, merry-go-rounds were revolving and spectral figures of guests, children and adults, were walking along avenues surrounded by sounds of the laughter and conversations heard as if they were played from tape recorders hidden somewhere. Mei wanted the place to resemble the funfair she had visited a few hours before the fire destroyed her body.

"Friends, Thank you for being with me through all the time. Thank you for everything you did for me. I will never create new companion for you again, since my enemies destroyed the place which gave me the power of creation... now my enemies are coming here and want to take everything away from me! This beautiful park, you, my friends... even this beautiful body."

Everyone gathered listened carefully to the woman. In spite of the fact that each of them was only a fragment of the mind of the small girl or memory of somebody who lost his life in the completely different place many years ago, everyone of them had a fragmentary self-awareness providing understatement of other people's words and carrying out orders.

"You are my last line of defense, my friends! Therefore I ask you for the last favor... stop my enemies, even for the price of your own life!"

None of circus performers needed hear the order twice. They walked around all over surroundings, heading to forest, to the place shown by the woman with golden hair. The lady as great as the mountain rolled in the company of two smiling clowns and the two-headed dog dragged his owner with three legs. Short men with shaven heads equipped themselves in daggers and soon disappeared in thickets surrounding rust-eaten enclosing of the entertainment park. Mei stayed alone in the middle of her kingdom.

At the same time, Rei, Masanori and Arthur were walking through the path overgrown by grass and bushes with thorny branches from both sides. The music of the park reached their them from a distance, muffled by leaves and hills stretching all around.

"Nothing is happening." Masanori said being pleased that he came across no situation which would remind him of his nightmares from last years.

"Perhaps closing her portal was enough? Perhaps she was defeated?" He asked.

"I'm not such an optimist. I could see a lot of bastards similar to her and believe me, they aren't giving up so easily." The bald man spoilt his mood with his pessimism.

"Arthur is right. I sense her... or rather than the woman who became a demon. I sense the part of living flame in her. It's completely different than the one which I have in myself, it's rejecting me even from the great distance."

"Rei, remember that she... she is very powerful even now when she isn't drawing the power from the wormhole. And moreover, now when you recovered your memory, she can use it to her benefit. She can try to cheat you, to arouse compassion... you cannot be fooled."

"I'm not going to. I'm not a naive teenager."

"Rei, have something changed since you came back from the past? I mean, your ability to control the flame."

"No. It's as the same as before. I'm feeling fuller and stronger. I'm sure that I can generate flames even not being transformed. I think that it will stay this way forever. Visions of spells about which I had not the foggiest idea, are turning up in my head."

"That's great. You must be in the full combat readiness."

"I could see Rei in an action, so I don't worry..." Masanori joined conversation.

"But in how do you want to fight? Do you know some tricks?" He asked coming up to the bald man.

"Only the one which I'm holding in the hand." Dale replied showing his handgun.

"Ah yes... I already got to know it. The last time I could see it, its barrel was next to my head."

"You deserved it."

"I'm glad that I don't remember this." -The girl interjected after a brief lapse.

"Who do you want to shoot with it? I tried to free myself from her this way, I borrowed the weapon from my friend and I waited for her appearance with her procession. I became convinced that she was immune to bullets, after all she is already dead." Masanori communicated facts known to him.

"The ordinary weapon won't hurt her, you are right but this handgun has unusual bullets inside. Each of them has special spell engraved, destroying all signs of demonic powers. I think that one shot will be enough to stop the control of the demon and destroy her undead body."

"Why didn't I have it, when she tormented me each night?" The boy asked rhetorically.

"Quiet! Something is coming near!" The bald man announced. Some shapes flashed in darkness of the forest. Rei closed eyes and the diadem on her head glistened with scarlet glitter. The ball of fire which lightened the entire neighborhood like a lamp appeared above her head. It was possible to see short figures with daggers in hands in the thicket. One of them approached Masanori's back dangerously.

"Rei!" The boy shouted. The black-haired woman-warrior kicked the face of the assailant with heel of her shoe. The hunter of demons knocked next two Lilliputians over, disarming them effectively. Short men very quickly got up from the earth and disappeared in the darkness taking their unconscious friend with them.

"You are a quick learner, Rei. You can't waste the magical energy on such things." Arthur said smiling.

"But you surely can waste the energy on such things, right?" Masanori spoke pointing at the approaching huge woman, strongman with the face overgrown by a beard and a few horribly laughing clowns.

"This fat woman irritated me from the beginning. " The bald man said pointing the handgun at the large old hag.

"Are you sure that these aren't real people?" Rei asked.

"Yes, you were a witness of the birth of the demon and his group." Arthur replied.

"I wanted to hear it from somebody one more time. " The girl answered and a bow of fire appeared in her hands.

"Mars Flame Sniper!" She shouted and the fiery arrow appeared on the bow and extremely quickly dashed in the direction of circus clowns. One of them was pierced through with it. He reeled and turned into the heap of ash, with a horrifying scream and senseless laughter. At the same time, Arthur Dale shot the second circus performer in the head. Clown, similarly to his friend a few moments earlier, tumbled down like a large mountain of sand destroyed by a coastal wind.

"Damn it, I'm feeling completely useless now." Masanori announced looking at work of destruction of his companions.

"Hwaaa" The fat woman screamed with a terror, turning around awkwardly. She was ready for the escape, because her simple mind was able to predict the results of the clash with more powerful opponents.

"Get lost from here and say to your ghostly acquaintances that if they want to live, they'd better let us walk through" Rei spoke to the woman trying to pick up speed and be farthest from the ones which horrified her so much.

"It was too easy." Masanori told as soon as the big ass of the woman disappeared behind bushes.

"They aren't so terrible as we thought. Mei, and the one who controls her, gave them too much human features, including the cowardice." Rei replied.

"I wouldn't be pleased prematurely." The hunter of demons added. The entire threesome moved into the way forward. They went along the overgrown footpath through grass and weeds and the ball of fire generated by abilities of the black-haired girl lightened their path up. Soon the route transformed into the forest clearing and lights of the funfair appeared before their eyes. Rei stood being silent on the edge of the precipice from which the panorama of the abandoned funfair stretched, listening to the music repeating itself as played from a broken gramophone record and a colorful lights of non-existent neon lights glittered in her eyes. The girl remembered newly regained memories: the warm summer day, meeting on the market and a walk to the funfair, playing with Mei and Masanori. After a moment she remembered also recent events: ghostly procession of circus freaks, malaise, fever and pain in every part of the body, frenzy which forced its way into her mind along with whispers of the children's mouth and the dance of circus clowns. She closed her eyes and firmly clenched fists. Meanwhile, the bald man came up to Masanori.

"Ghostly place." He announced looking at spectral roller coaster.

"Yes, all years it was in my mind and drove me mad."

"Therefore today we must destroy this funfair." The girl added.

"And you'd better start right now." She finished. When she took a few steps along a path leading down to the gates of the funfair, she noticed that the reception committee had awaited her there. Great strongman, three legged dancer, short men, a few acrobats and fire-eaters, and fat woman with the male facial hair in the distance. All were protecting the place of their own creation.

"Aren't they able to learn by mistakes?" Rei asked upset with the appearance of the next obstacle.

"They aren't able to oppose the will which appointed them to a life. They are worried about what will happen to them, because they understand the world surrounding them, but without the free will they can be only a tool of the crazy intelligence ruling this place." The bald man shared his ideas.

" I'm fed up with all of this!" The girl didn't hide her irritation.

"Fire Soul!" She shouted forming the sphere of fire in hands. The ball flew in the direction of the strongman, setting him on fire as if the man was poured with liters of petrol. Daggers thrown by unusually thin mimes, sword swallowers, soared up towards Rei immediately. Dale wanted to react, but Sailor Mars was faster.

"Burning Mandala!" She cast the next offensive spell, this time looking like many hoops of fire rushing with a great speed to the knives. She managed to destroy every sharp object and the next portion of fiery circles destroyed artificial bodies of ghostly circus performers dressed in white.

"Fire Soul! Burning Mandala! Mars Flame Sniper!" The girl fell into the battle trance, casting a spell after a spell at the armies of circus freaks. Martian flames ravaged acrobats, swallowers of flames, clowns, three legged dancer and her bizarre dog, short men with small bald heads and a lot of other colorful people whom she was afraid so much not so long ago. Masanori and Arthur looked at performance of the girl with a concern, thinking whether they weren't in danger in the vicinity of the raging element controlled by the black-haired woman-warrior.

"Fire Birds Soul!" Rei used one of newly taught spells and two wild birds with eyes shining like dying stars appeared above her head. Ardent ravens encircled the warrior a few times and attacked the fat woman. Both hit simultaneously, arousing the explosion in the shape of large, flaming wings.

"Rei, I'm afraid of you... who are you?" Masanori said, but not loud enough so that the girl could hear him.

"Are we coming in?" The bald man asked.

"No. We didn't defeat all opponents." The girl announced.

"How come?" Arthur looked all around in search for enemies about which her friend was talking.

"Look ahead, Arthur. All these lights, sounds, the music and laughter's. They should not be here, it's unnatural work of the evil consciousness. We must extinguish these lights and restore the funfair to a state in which it should be after many years of abandonment and disintegration."

"It will take a bit too long for us, don't you think?" Masanori asked.

"No. Not long." Rei answered smiling. She raised hands above the head and closed her eyes. The diadem on her head lighted up with a glitter of a ruby again. The girl opened eyes which turned out to be changed, flaming with a real fire, like the ancient flame of Mars, burning outside the time and space, took over her body.

"Mars Flaming Storm!" Sailor Mars recited her most powerful spell. Red-brown clouds appeared on the sky and after a moment the rain started to fall down. It wasn't an ordinary rain, or a downpour or even a hailstorm, but the real rain of the fire, like tens of burning meteorites in the atmosphere. Fiery balls fell on the park and destroyed its attractions one after the other. All lights on places of entertainment and on large roller coaster were consumed by flames and disappeared like darkening windows of the large tower block in which people are lying down to sleep after a heavy working day. The merry-go-round with wooden horses hit with the ball of fire smashed into small shreds and its music went quiet, the laughter of spectral children also silenced. Fireballs were falling also on the main square of the funfair and Mei was watching with a terror her work of live and a tool for revenge being digested by the fire of her old friend and the biggest enemy. One of the greatest flames, looking from a distance like the column of flame fell on the palace of the curiosities, in which everything began many years ago. Stuffed mutated animals, human fetuses of wax in large jars with formalin, photographs of old freaks living in the circus as well as the box, thanks to which Mei got the second live, everything disappeared under the influence of the heat of Sailor Mars' spell who was learning her real power. Rei lowered her hands, simultaneously falling down on her knees. Dale and Masanori ran to her quickly, not letting her fall down to the ground. In the same time, the rain of the fire ended and dark brown clouds disappeared as fast and mysteriously as they had appeared. The fire devoured every element of the scenery of the funfair, its glitter lightened up the entire neighborhood above which the night slowly yielded and a new day began. The girl looked mutely at her friends and they noticed with relief that she had been herself again and her eyes assumed the natural appearance. She pushed hands of both men from herself, trying to get up and to stay in the straightened position. She was weakened with using the unusually powerful spell, but yet she insisted not to stop, to go further into raging flames consuming wooden attractions of the destroyed funfair.

"Are you sure that you are ok? We can retreat and come back here when you regain strength..." The bald man suggested being worried about the health of his friend.

"No!" Rei replied coldly.

"She would also regain strength. We cannot afford it."

"Or perhaps she already died... after what you did with this place..." Masanori said looking at raging flames and the viewing tower tumbling down in the distance.

"She didn't die. And she is regaining the strength to square up with me for the last time." Rei moved ahead, using the magic in order to extinguish flames burning on her road. She was in the middle of the square, exactly in the same central place in which Mei surrounded by the procession of bizarre figures from the circus stood not so long ago. The girl looked all around trying to spy her opponent, but the fire consuming everything around and the thick smoke of the burning wood of both old paints and varnishes constituted the effective cover to her senses. The place looked as if it became a victim of the concentrated air raid a moment ago, the prevailing heat around had an influence on Rei, her eyes were watery and the smoke annoyed the her respiratory track. In spite of all inconveniences, the girl persisted in her search. At some point, she felt that something was approaching to her with a huge speed. Instinctively, she dodged aside and the big ball compound of flames and strange black tar smashed beside her showering her leg with burning chips. Mei loomed from a clouds of smoke. Arthur Dale pointed his handgun to her.

"I have you demon. This time I can look into your real eyes rather than into the eyes of some puppet!" He shouted. The woman with golden hair looked at him with the contempt.

"I don't have a time to deal with such an insect as you!" She hissed through clenched teeth. The fiery ball formed in her hand and soon it was launched towards the bald man. The bullet exploded right before his body, effectively deafening him and burning exposed parts of the body. Arthur fell down to the ground and his handgun fell down besides, straight into dirty sand.

"Dale!" Rei turned to his side. She got scared seeing the motionless body of the man, she was afraid of the worst. It was her mistake. The opponent used her moment of inattention and her fingers transformed into fiery knives. After a moment, their dreadful whistle deafened all other local sounds and Rei's blood splattered on the earth and the nearby building.

"Rei!" Masanori got scared seeing the black-haired girl kneeling before the demon, holding her arm on which blood appeared. Soon the entire Sailor Mars' glove became wet and red and blood not only dripped up to her feet, but it started flowing with a large stream. Mei looked at the hurt woman-warrior with ill satisfaction. Rei didn't think too long, she knew that she had had to save herself with every possible means. She generated the intense warm in the hand which effectively stopped the bleeding. She felt great pain, but in spite of it the girl didn't show her opponent the weakness.

"Why are you doing it Mei? Why do you hate me so much?" She asked.

"You know the answer. Who are you now Rei, after many years? You have your own life, you certainly studies, you have a work and friends. You have everything what you took from me in one night, in one brief lapse." Mei generated a warm wave which violently knocked the woman-warrior down. Rei raised from the dirty earth looking at her old friend. She decided to use the last chance to talk some sense into her. Masanori stood by the bald hunter of demons. He became convinced that the man hadn't been dead but only unconscious. He looked with a fear at the heroine with golden hair of his nightmares as well as her former friend kneeling at her feet. Rei had triggered the storm of fire, she had destroyed the entire funfair and in spite of it she surrendered to the power of the demon. How much powerful he was and was there any chances of defeating him?"

"Mei... what happened then in the funfair isn't my fault... neither mine, neither Masanori's, neither yours... it was unfortunate accident. We became victims of the power which had fun with our cost..." Rei was talking to delay the fight against her old friend.

"How dare you lie like this! How dare you to tell me that you were also a victim! You weren't burnt alive then! You didn't feel the same pain! You escaped from there with this bloody coward leaving me behind to become a prey for the element! You killed me!"

"Mei, I was a child then... we were children... I could not help you in any way, if I tried, I would finish the same as you! I was afraid!"

"If you didn't turn up in our city, it wouldn't come to this! It's you who are the real anomaly, much more disgusting than all my friends whom you destroyed! If not your fire I still would be alive, I would have a life and a work and friends and a beloved! I wouldn't be an apparition roaming through the abandoned park of entertainment, frightening people in sultry summer nights! I wouldn't be a spirit of a revenge, whose happiest thought was that at one time I would be able to destroy the ones who took my life away!" Mei ran up to Sailor Mars and slapped her in the face.

"And now you took away from me even these... my friends... my kingdom... source of my power..."

"Everything what you're saying is the truth... my fire summoned the demon, freed him and made him able to posses you. My fire destroyed your body and filled your soul up with the hate of the evil from ages ago... but if there is at least a piece of the former Mei in you, you must know that I didn't make it specially... I was a child, I didn't know that I was different, unusual... I didn't know what kind of power I had... I still don't understand it, although I'm able to use magic flames. Other powers participated in what had happened with you, like for example the tunnel which connected the past with the future during the ritual initiated by your grandmother. That's all is so complicated, it is hard to judge explicitly what was the result and what was the cause..."

Meanwhile, Masanori approached Arthur's handgun. He squatted next to it and after a moment of thought picked it up going toward two women.

"Perhaps you weren't conscious of what was happening, but it does not change the fact that you killed me Rei, you destroyed my body and changed my soul into something horrible, infernal... I hate you and I will destroy you no matter what." Mei said angrily. Sailor Mars got up from the earth and ignoring pain approached the demon with golden hair.

"Mei... I promised your grandmother that I would give you the well-deserved rest. I am here only for this reason, if you provoke me, I am ready to do everything in order to fulfill the promise even without your agreement. But I would like these last hour to help us find agreement and forgiveness..."

"A long time ago I decided that there was no other way for me than the revenge on two of you. I won't change my mind and even if I won't achieve my purpose today I will find you and I will kill. The same as your entire family, if you have anybody."

The last Mei's words convinced Rei that the girl had been too pervaded with pain and hate to try to talk with her rationally and to reach any agreement. Only the power had any chance of a success.

"Well. In that case I'll fulfill the promise and I'll send you to eternal rest." She said closing her eyes.

"Fire Soul." She whispered throwing a huge ball of fire at the girl with golden hair. Mei smiled stopping the large bullet in midair, right before her face. Rei was surprised. Instinctively, she prepared for the defense. The energy released by the charm was returned directly at the black-haired woman-warrior. Rei managed to dodge the huge outburst, but ardent wave reached her, deprived her of the balance and knocked over into dirty sand. Mei bent over her, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head up with all her might.

"Now you can experience your own power. You can feel tongues of fire on your own skin. You aren't able to defeat me because I control every aspect of your magic, I am immune to it. Your death will be equally painful as mine years ago... I will burn your hair, hands, legs... I will burn your throat and lungs... you will be suffering the same as I then..."

"Leave her alone!" Masanori cried pointing the gun barrel at the women. Mei noticed him, pushed Sailor Mars from herself and approached the boy with a saunter.

"Did you already forget that you had tried to do something similar at one time? Did you forget how I had punished you then? Or perhaps I must remind you about it?" She said smiling maliciously.

"Stay away from me... you'll regret this!" Masanori's voice cracked, he wasn't able to hide the fear at the sight of women demon.

"I have a proposal for you Masanori. If you will come up to Rei and you will shoot her at the head, I swear, that I will leave you alone. I will never again be invading you in your dreams and better I will let you depart from this place. This woman destroyed me, reduced my body to ashes, so it will be just, if a similar fate meets her from hands of other childhood friend."

The boy hesitated, he was looking at Rei getting up from the earth.

"Bullets won't hurt, you had seen this in the past. You also know that I always keep my words. I promised that I would turn your life into the nightmare and it had happened, right? Now I promise that I will leave you alone. You have to put the barrel to the head of this murderess and pull the trigger. It's so simple. Once, you have agreed to destroy her in the indirect way by infecting her with the virus created by me. My request now doesn't differ from that one."

Masanori slowly raised the handgun, pointing it at the black-haired girl. His eyes was running all around, every couple of minutes meeting with eyes of Rei or the crazy Mei's eyesight. Fear of the woman and memories of a few final years caused that he seriously considered fulfilling the proposal of the blonde. In the end, he decided to act. He made a decision to get even with demons from the past. He violently moved the weapon at Mei's direction body and fired. The bullet on which magic inscriptions were engraved hit the shoulder of the woman, piercing it through. Mei was shocked, she felt great pain which she could not expect. She clutched her wound from which fiery blood poured.

"How is it possible?" She asked.

"Every bullet of this weapon is protected by the spell. It isn't an ordinary handgun." Masanori replied feeling relief that the bald hunter of demons had told the truth about his handgun.

"I won't let you..." Mei raised her healthy hand towards the face of the boy. She wanted to attack him the same as Rei a few minutes ago.

"Be gone you witch..." Masanori said shooting again. This time the bullet hit blonde straight at the centre of the forehead. The woman fell down to the ground silently and burning blood pool started forming around her body.

"I really did it... it's the end.." The boy was talking to himself looking at still warm barrel of the gun belonging to the hunter of demons. Rei moved closer to him. She was surprised by what he had done a moment ago, his courage and the final decision.

"You risked a lot. What would you do if she turned out to be immune to it? The second solution was much simpler."

"I told you I won't run away anymore" The boy replied coldly and walked away towards Arthur who managed to regain consciousness. He gave him his weapon back.

"It is your property." He said.

"Good job." The hunter replied.

"This is really the end. Let us go away from here before somebody from the city becomes interested in "Rei, you must do something more." Dale informed.

"Yes?"

"You must destroy her body. We aren't sure if she is able to revive if we leave her like this."

"I don't want to do it for the second time." The girl said.

"You must. After all you promised that you would let Mei rest for the eternity, true?"

"Yes." Rei answered and turned around coming back to the place where Mei's body lay. She looked at dead eyes of the girl petrified in a huge surprise.

"Mei, prepare for the dream. You deserve this after many years of your endless nightmare." She whispered. Tears appeared in her eyes.

"Now when I remembered all of this... you will remain in my memory forever as the friend from the childhood with golden hair. Fire Soul..." Rei create huge ball of fire which quickly consumed the slim body of the woman.

The girl was standing over the charring body of her forgotten friend. Arthur came up to her, because he guessed that people from the city could turn up at the burning funfair soon.

"Rei, let us walk away. We have nothing to do here anymore." He said touching the hand of the girl.

"Yes... let us walk from here." She replied wiping the tears away from her eyes. The entire threesome walked away from the park leaving the fire, clouds of smoke and pieces of burning matter afloat everywhere which once belonged to the most cheerful place in the surroundings. They won with the demon in the fight, but their triumph wasn't a reason for joy. They were not talking to each other, not commenting and not looking back. Each one of them knew that they had been forced to take difficult decisions in the fight, whose consequences would torment them for years.

At dawn, an intense rain fell, the real downpour identical to the one which greeted Rei when she had got off the bus for the time first and had gone to the hotel, not suspecting what was supposed to happen to her in that city. Rivulets of water stifled raging flames in the funfair, effectively stopping them from attacking a nearby forest and then houses of small town. Rei spent the time in her hotel accommodation, packing up and preparing for the departure. She sat down on the sofa taking the shirt off and started examining the wound on the arm. The scar was ugly, the scab from blood clotted under the influence of the temperature looked hideous and bladders from burning appeared on the skin all around. The girl closed her eyes. She sighed leaning against the couch.

"Even when it gets well there will be a ugly scar." She thought.

"Oh well, I must forget about the short sleeve." She added. She looked towards the table on which scattered photographs taken from the house of the older woman lay. They all portrayed the small girl with blue eyes and they were done a short time before the death of the child in the funfair. The face of her friend from which hate fueled by the ancient demon radiated turned up at thoughts of the girl. Moment later, the image disappeared and others, even more terrifying view of dying Mei from whose wound in the head flaming blood was flowing, appeared. Rei knew that this image would be tormenting her in nightmarish dreams. Suddenly, somebody knocked at the door. Rei opened the door and asked the guest to come in. He turned out to be Arthur Knight.

"How are you feeling after all of this?" He asked. Rei corrected her hair, she lowered the eyesight in order to avoid the look of the bald man.

"Somehow, I am relatively fine. Really well for somebody who has killed her old friend twice."

"Rei, you know that it was the only way. If you didn't destroy her body, she could recovered and found you at one time. Sparing her would only postpone the ultimate confrontation. Apart from that, you destroyed only the demon, your friend died once, then in the park when you were children."

"I know it. But the attempt to explain it in the rational way isn't making it better, I'm feeling terrible."

"I understand you Rei. But it's a good sign that you're feeling this way. If it became irrelevant to you, you would be lost completely." Arthur noticed Mei's photographs which the black-haired girl took away from the breaking down house of the girl's grandmother.

"Are you sure that you want to take it? They will be reminding you of what happened here."

"And that's good. I must remember how far I went."

"Don't impose too heavy penance upon yourself. It won't give you anything more than a psychic self-annihilation."

"I conclude that you went through something like that at one time... otherwise you wouldn't have this many advices for me." The girl sat down on the sofa. She turned her head away towards the window and the bald man understood that had wanted to finish the theme. He sat down by her simultaneously looking attentively at her hand.

"Ugly looking. Are you sure that you don't want to visit some hospital?"

"Perhaps I will do it when I come back to Tokyo, now I want only to get out of this place as soon as possible."

" But we cannot leave the arm in such a state. Even if you get no infection, it will be hideous to look in the future."

"Do you want to take me to the plastic surgeon?" Rei touched the wound on arm.

"No. Do you remember when you asked me about my abilities?"

"What's that got to do with it?"

"I didn't tell you the whole truth. I have one power, which cannot help me in the fight, but is useful when everything ends and the dust of battle falls down." The hunter touched the arm of the girl. She instinctively broke free for him and moved away.

"What do you want?" She asked surprised.

"Trust me and don't move. Did I cheat you before?" The bald man asked. Rei relaxed.

"No..."

"Sit calmly and close your eyes." Dale said again touching the arm of the girl. Rei felt warmth going along her limb, radiating all the way to the torso and the head. At some point, she opened her eyes and turned away from the man, because the warmth started being unpleasantly hot. She looked at the arm and in astonishment she realized that her wound as well as burns entirely disappeared.

"How?"

"It's my real ability. I'm able to heal wounds." Dale replied overjoyed.

" You helped me... how many times now? Thanks." The girl said.

"Actually I came to you from the completely different purpose. I forgot because our small conversation and the trick with treating the wound. I brought you the invitation."

"Invitation?" Rei was surprised very much.

"To cool forest behind the café. Today, in a minute."

Rei thought for a few seconds and very quickly understood what it was all about.

"Masanori! Isn't he able to understand that I don't want to talk to him?" The girl became nervous. She went to the window and opened it widely, because it was getting hotter outside.

"Rei. He made a terrible mistake and I felt like killing him not so long ago. But everything what he did after you got well in that abandoned factory, how he helped us... he did it to rectify his mistakes. Don't you think that you should give him a chance? That you should let him say goodbye as friends do?"

"Nothing will change the fact that he tried to kill me."

"Rei, don't you think that the meeting with him can make you feel better? He is the only person who experience the exactly the same thing as you. He was with you in the funfair when the fire broke out, Mei hated him the same as you and she tried to destroy his life. Both it was he who had pulled the trigger and passed one of my magic bullets straight through Mei's head, right?"

Rei came closer to the window. She looked silently at few clouds moving in the sky. She wanted to look at the night sky above Tokyo, on which there is no stars, as soon as possible.

"You're right." She said not turning to the man.

"I will go there and I'll talk with him." She replied deciding to grant the request of her friend.

When Rei reached the forest with the mountain stream hidden behind the café, there was a noon, but the heat wasn't so bad because clouds appeared above the small town again. The girl went along the path, surrounded by green pleasant for eyes and the soothing rustle of water washing stones. She spotted Masanori standing on the bank of the stream, exactly in the same place in which she had stayed, when the boy had invited her to forest for the first time. She hesitated, whether to speak to him, or to go up closer, or perhaps to turn around and to walk away farthest from that place and never come back to it again. Masanori noticed her and asked her to join him.

"How are your wounds?" He asked.

"Well. Arthur Dale healed them. He has healing abilities or something similar."

"It's interesting. Looking at him one could think that he is gifted only for the destruction."

"Rei, I went to forest in the morning. Many people are squirming there, the police, fire service, a lot of gawkers, everyone is taking photographs. From what I could hear, the park is supposed to be entirely demolished and the entire area will be converted into the forest with new trees. We won. Not a single one spot will remain of this cursed place."

"It will remain..." The girl interrupted him, not waiting for his next statement.

In my memory. In the memory of us all."

"Rei, thanks to you I managed to take revenge for all these years of suffering. I will always remember about it. Thank you."

"It's a pity that you tried easy ride at first." The girl squatted. She put hands into the cold stream.

"I'll always remember about it also." The boy replied throwing the small pebble to the water.

"I'm not asking you for a forgiveness, but I want you to understand me."

"I already understood. I went through psychological tortures of this woman, I know what they mean. You had enough of them and when the chance presented itself you used it. You behaved like the ordinary man fighting over his surviving and I'll never be holding a grudge against you. You demonstrated that you can save yourself and what is the most important for me, you showed that you weren't and you would never be my true friend. I came to say goodbye to you today, I will never come back to this place anymore. Thank you helping me to see my past, thank you for saving my life there in the park. Goodbye." The girl answered gearing herself up to walk away. Masanori continued the conversation after the moment of silence.

"You mean there is no chance for us to become friends?"

"You're right, Masanori. There is no chance." Rei walked away leaving the boy with his thoughts.

Rei and Knight Arthur Dale met on the railway station in the nearby city for the last time. They both were ready for the travel and the return to everyday duties. They had a lot of questions to each other, but the majority of them was supposed to remain unanswered at the moment.

"Thank you that you helped me with my hunt, Rei." The bald man said.

"I should thank you. After all it was who caused the entire thing and I drew you into it. Apart from that I don't know how I could repay you for saving my ass, like three times."

"Four times, if we want to be accurate. In the hotel when you fell ill for the first time, in the funfair, in the abandoned factory, where you almost died and at the end in the hotel, where I healed your arm."

"Right. Let's stop talking about details." The girl smiled.

"How are you feeling? Did something change since the last night?" Dale changed subject.

"Are you asking about the flame? Nothing, it is still the same. I'm feeling strange being able to do something like that..." The girl showed the hand above which the tiny fiery ball went up.

"You will get used to this. More important is that you found the part of you lost long ago."

"It puzzling me how many fragments of this fire are still in the world? The demon showed me images from the past. Some Inquisitor from the Europe used the fire for killing people. Who knows whether somebody is doing similar things to today's times."

"I think that you are now the only person who can find answers to these questions. If you want I can help you. I know people who know the greatest mysteries."

"Yes, I would like to learn more about this fire. When it appeared inside me, I have a strange, irrepressible desire for searching for the truth."

"Just remember to take care of yourself. I crammed myself into different trouble by looking where I should not have to."

" I would like to know about this more also."

"Rei, your train will leaving right away. You should hurry up." The bald man recalled showing railroad cars standing close by.

"See you." The girl smiled and waved goodbye to her new friend. After a moment she got one of railroad cars on. Arthur Dale Knight took his bag with luggage and moved ahead of himself in the direction known only to himself.


End file.
